A Thousand Years Ago
by Mechanical Oven
Summary: Taking place a thousand years before the events of Paper Mario 2, a boy named Nazuchi, apprentice of Lighten, goes out on an adventure after the girl of his interest is taken away, along with his hometown, Tagel. Though the Four Heroes do not accept him, he meets five others that are willing to help him on his quest to gather the Land Tablets and save the world.
1. Welcome Back, Princess Lilia!

**This is a little idea that I had a long time ago when I had played through Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It was originally going to be a bit on the short side, but it ended up being a bit longer than that. It's mainly about what happened a thousand years ago with the Shadow Queen and stuff, with some of my ideas added in, too!  
**

**There are OCs in this story, so if you aren't fond of them, it's best for you to not read this.  
**

**I don't own the ideas of the four heroes nor do I own some of the other characters you might recognize. The only characters I DO own are the ones you have no clue about. So… Here we go!**

* * *

Chapter 1: Welcome Back, Princess Lilia!

Nazuchi was just like every normal thirteen year old. Once you become the age of thirteen, you would go out to become an apprentice. His parents sent him down to the town of Tagel, one of the nicest towns to settle in. The castle even had a king that respected his people. Nazuchi was pleased to become an apprentice in fighting. He wished to become a strong warrior, and the only one who was willing to take him was a swordsman named Lighten.

Nazuchi was a light green spherical-shaped creature with small arms with brown leather gloves and short, green legs with leather boots. His eyes were a bright yellow and had blonde hair. Many people liked to call him Blondie due to being the only blonde person in the town.

His mentor, Lighten was a spherical shape just like Nazuchi, but he wore a silver mask to hide his face for reasons not even Nazuchi knew. His pauldrons and boots were a golden color, and his cape was even gold as well. He was practicing with his apprentice on how to use a sword. They were using wooden ones to prevent injury.

"Yes, that's good, Nazuchi! Keep your eyes steady!" Lighten was blocking Nazuchi's attacks in a training room. There was nothing around except for a door and a couple of weapons used for training.

Nazuchi's blonde hair was a little long, and stuff would often get in it like some gum that he was chewing on. When he blew a bubble, it ended up popping and getting in his hair.

"Aw, man! Not again!" Nazuchi groaned as he began to pick the gum off his hair, making Lighten pause.

"Pay attention, my apprentice!" Lighten demanded. "Your mother and father sent you here for a reason! This is not the time for picking at your hair, Blondie! You can do that when we're done with training!"

"Sorry, sir… I just don't want this gum in my hair. My hair is so light, and if people see me with this gum in my hair, they're probably going to laugh at me! I'm proud of my blondeness, dang it!"

"It is fine if you're proud of your hair. It does make you stand out more, though..." Lighten shrugged as he raised his wooden sword up. "Now let's get back to our training."

They began to train a little longer for about ten more minutes until they heard a knock at their door.

"Hold on a second. Let me get the door." Lighten walked out of the room and to the front door. He saw a Toad in silver armor holding a sword. He took out an invitation and gave it to him.

"King Braze has invited you to his castle," the Toad Guard informed. "It seems like he has something special to tell some people such as you. Your apprentice is invited to the castle too!"

"Hmmm…" Lighten read the letter and slowly nodded to the knight. "So you want us to be there right now? Though we _are _busy with some training at the moment, we can make it."

"Great! I'll go tell King Braze at this moment!" the Toad Guard walked off to the big castle in the background. Lighten closed the door and walked back into the training room with his gold cape wrapped around.

"Nazuchi! Today's training is over." Lighten declared. "We've been invited to the castle by King Braze. He never said why he wants us to come, but it's the king's orders, and we're going."

"We need to go to the king's castle? !" Nazuchi guffawed. "I can't go with my hair having gum in it!"

"Very well, if you want me to get rid of that gum, then I shall use **Galaxia **to do it for you," Lighten grabbed his golden hilt, and as energy surrounded it, it made a golden sword with two spikes on the sides. He held the sword up, which began to glow. He placed the sword on Nazuchi's hair, and all the gum began to disappear. After that, he put his sword away.

"You can thank me later. For now, we must go." Lighten walked over to the front door and pulled a green hat from the hangar. It looked like a floppy hat with a little gold diamond pompom on the tip.

"A hat? What for?" Nazuchi asked.

"It's a little hot out there, so put this on your head. It can probably fit, so don't worry." his mentor tossed it to him, who put it on his head. Truth be told, he didn't care if his blonde hair was showing. He sometimes got sick of being called "Blondie" anyway.

"Thanks, sir! _I'm so not looking forward to this…_" Nazuchi sighed as he followed his master to the castle, where the guards let them through. The place was absolutely gorgeous, having a nice gray floor that was polished. It looks like the people here did a good job at cleaning the place up.

"This way, Nazuchi!" Lighten escorted him to the big room straight ahead. Only people at a high rank such as Lighten could go through there. There, they found the king standing up over by his throne. Nazuchi and Lighten went to the other upper-class knights and began to listen to King Braze. A bunch of Toads, Goombas, and Koopa peasants were a little further back, sitting in their chairs.

The king was wearing a very nice royal red robe and had a long beard. His crown was two feet long in width, and he was holding a golden staff. He represented someone that was more human-like than any of the other species, but technically, he wasn't human. In fact, he resembled Nazuchi's kind of species.

"I am pleased to see you people make it!" King Braze smiled. "Yes, I'm very pleased… Why did I being you all here? Why… I would like to introduce you to my daughter! Princess Lilia!"

As all the knights began to kneel down, Nazuchi was left confused and looked around.

"Kneel down," Lighten whispered, making Nazuchi quietly gasp and kneel down. He kept his head down like all of the other Toad knights in armor. Lighten was next to a big guy name Joe. He was a big guy and was one of his best friends.

_"Don't mess up, Nazuchi... Don't mess up..." _Nazuchi thought as this bothered him. He knew he had to keep his head hung low, but with the footsteps coming his way, he couldn't resist looking up to see who walked over to him.

At this point, his face turned pink as he gasped.

Whom he saw in front of him was a beautiful thirteen year old girl with long, beautiful blonde hair with a pink and hot pink dress. She was wearing white gloves, and her crown had purple diamonds around. Her necklace were also purple diamonds, which was very valuable. She didn't really have makeup on her, but she had pink lips, if that was anything important. She also resembled Nazuchi's species as well, although her skin was peach rather than Nazuchi's light green.

_"She's... She's beautiful!"_

When Lilia looked down at the knights kneeling down, she noticed Nazuchi gazing at her and her beautiful pink eyes. She smiled and blushed at him as well, noticing his expression.

"Ah ha ha ha ha! Well, now! It looks like somebody has just fallen in love now, has he?" Nazuchi stopped blushing and turned to see a strange jester float up. His mask was part black and part lavender, having a yellow eye on the black side and a black one on the lavender side. His hat was purple, with a little blue added to it. He had hands, but no arms. Only his hands, legs and feet were black and were glowing white.

"Excuse me? Who are you?" Lilia asked as the jester grabbed her hand and bowed to her.

"Why, I'm a jester, as you can see! …Or rather, I am the master of dimensions, pleaser of crowds! You may call me…Dimentio!" Dimentio introduced. "I am your father's faithful servant!"

"Lilia? Were you all right before?" King Braze asked. "You looked like you were taking a look at one of Lighten's apprentices."

"Sorry, Father!" Lilia apologized as she instantly turned to her father. "I, uh…dozed off a little! Sorry! …Is this clown yours, though?"

"Of course! I've had Dimentio for a long time! He IS a great entertainer!"

"Yes! Of course! I can do MANY tricks…with magic! Observe!" Dimentio snapped his fingers and made a rose appear. "Here you go, my dear! This is for you!"

"Oh, thank you..."

He gave it to the princess, and when she looked at it, it turned into a flower that squirted water in Nazuchi's face. He wiped the water off his face and grit his teeth at Dimentio. Lighten told him to let it go, so he did just that while sighing.

"Ah, your anger! It's like a beaver chomping on a tree! I can almost feel it inside of you!" Dimentio cackled, which made Nazuchi angrier, but he knew it was best to let it go. Lilia looked at Nazuchi again before hearing his father's voice.

"Yes, my lovely daughter, Princess Lilia, has come here after a great tragedy happened with her mother," King Braze explained. "I was willing to take her here, and now she'll be spending her life here until she is a queen! So, treat her with the same respect you treat me."

Everyone understood and nodded. Nazuchi nodded too, blushing while looking at Lilia. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Dimentio couldn't help but smirk at him for falling for the princess.

"Now, then! We shall feast until the night is over! Come, my knights! Let us celebrate my daughter's return with a feast!" the king walked out of the room, and Lilia followed him. All of the knights, which included Lighten and Nazuchi, followed them first. Dimentio even followed, but the thing was that he wasn't invited. They found a big, long table with some candles and plates. A door was up ahead and that led to a kitchen.

"My loyal chefs! Make some grub for my knights, the princess and myself!" King Braze ordered as he clapped his hands together. A Cheep Cheep chef nodded and waddled into the kitchen with his other Cheep Cheep chefs.

The king and his daughter sat at the end of the table, while Nazuchi and Lighten sat far from the two. "Now, Lilia… You may have the honor of choosing which knight can sit by you. Who would my suggestion be? Well, Lighten, of course!"

Lilia sat down on her royal chair and looked at Lighten, who had his cape wrapped around himself. Then she looked at Nazuchi, who blushed when she looked at him. She smiled at him and turned to his father.

"Father… How about him?" Lilia suggested as she pointed to Nazuchi, who dropped his mouth. Lighten helped lift it up. The warrior felt like his apprentice was going to faint. Thankfully he didn't because he looked like he was nervous.

"Me?" Nazuchi asked as he slowly pointed to himself.

"Of course."

"Well... Uh... You see... I... I think I might need to use the restroom."

"Then go to the restroom," King Braze suggested. "You have my permission."

"...No, I don't think it's that," Nazuchi made his way over to the chair next to Lilia and sat next to her. If there was one thing he was bad at, it was talking to girls. He was sure Lilia was much better with boys.

_"I should sit with Nazuchi. I want to make sure he's all right…" _Lighten thought as he sat next to Nazuchi. His buffy friend sat next to him.

"Say, Lighten! Tell that story about the time you kicked that clown out of your house!" Joe suggested. "Man, it was HILARIOUS!"

"Very well," Lighten sighed. "So I was sitting down on my chair, watching the fire with my cup of coffee… That clown suddenly appears in my house and asks if I need entertainment. I said no, but he kept pestering me about it…and then I was forced to kick him out with my own golden boot. He didn't take it too well. So then I..."

"BAH HA HA HA HA!" Joe laughed stupidly as he began to bang on the table, which made everyone gawk at him.

"Joe! Don't do that! You'll break the table, for goodness sake!" Lighten snapped.

"Oh, sorry... My bad."

Everyone heard the kitchen doors open and the Koopa chefs brought out some food. It looked like baked potatoes were put on the table and also a big chicken with legs.

"Ah! Food!" Joe grabbed a leg off the chicken and began to scarf it down. Nazuchi grabbed the potatoes and decided to eat them instead. Lilia even got potatoes too and smiled at Nazuchi.

"Hey, Nazuchi…" Lilia whispered, making Nazuchi stop. "How have things been around here?"

"Uhhh... Well, they've been fine for the most part." Nazuchi answered, unsure of what else to say. "Why do you ask?"

"Listen… There's something I need to talk to you about. It's really important. Can you meet me up at my room? I can't take no for an answer."

"Ummmm... OK, I guess I have no choice..."

Lilia was about to ask her father to be excused, but then a Koopatrol charged into the room.

"Your Majesty!" the Koopa cried. "Four travelers! They have come here to see you!"

"What?! Four travelers? What do they want?" King Braze asked.

"They said something about wanting to rest from their long journey. Permission to bring them in?"

"Go right ahead," the king nodded as the Koopa opened the door. A Toad with red polka-dots on his cap, a blue shirt, and white pants was the first to walk in. He was the youngest traveler, being fifteen years old. Though… He was not the best with using money and tended to act like he was the coolest.

The next person following up was a Koopa with a scar on his cheek. He was holding a big sword and was in black clothing. He definitely was the scariest-looking of the four travelers. He was only nineteen years old too!

A purple Boo came following next. She was wearing a witch's hat that was bent down a little and was holding a staff that allowed her to use magic. She was wearing purple eye shadow too. She seemed cold-hearted and would be best not to speak to her. She was twenty one years old.

The last one was a fifty-five year old Goomba with a red hat and gray hair. There wasn't much to her except the monocle, and everyone knows that monocles are cool. She's the wisest of the travelers, being much older.

"Hello, king of…whatever you're the king of! We would love it if you were to let us stay here for the night! My name is Toadburt, and this is Koopo, Bonnie, and Goombi." Toadburt introduced. "Of course, I'm the one with the coolest and hottest voice, so I'll do the talking!"

_"Ugh… He should realize he's not going to get us a room by talking like that." _Bonnie thought, face palming.

"Well, I suppose I can give you a room," King Braze declared. "Then it's settled! You four may join us if you wish! Where have you come from anyway?"

"Why, I came from Petalburg, and Goombi here came from Boggly Woods! As for the other two… I have no idea where the hell they came from!" Toadburt got bonked by the hilt of Koopo's big sword.

"Ummm… Father? May I be excused for a minute?" Lilia asked as she stood up.

"Of course you may, Lilia! Don't take too long!" King Braze told his daughter. She walked past Nazuchi, giving him a wink as a little reminder. When she finally left, the blonde boy looked over at his master.

"Ummm… Lighten? Could I be excused to go to the restroom?" Nazuchi asked

"You wish to go to the restroom? You said you didn't have to go a second ago..." Lighten trailed.

"Well... It came back."

"Well, if you gotta go, you gotta go," his mentor shrugged as Nazuchi got up and trotted out of the room. Toadburt watched him go and looked at Lighten.

"Is that your kid, shorty?" Toadburt asked.

"_Shorty?_" Lighten gawked. "...Er, I mean, yes. That is my apprentice."

"Oh... He doesn't look all that- Whoa… That's one cool cape! I gotta get me one of those things! How much coins do I have?" Toadburt took out his wallet and saw a puff of smoke come out.

"Dude… You spent all of our money riding a pony. ALL of your money!" Koopa explained. "Riding some pony was a complete waste of money…"

"Hold on… You spent ALL of our money?! Toadburt! You don't spend all of your money on a pony ride!" Goombi scolded.

"Relax, my fellow travelers! For I have saved some money! Yes! I have a little secret wallet just in case someone tries to rob me!" Toadburt checked his other pocket, but he found nothing.

"Wh-What?! Uh oh… I think I left it at home!" Toadburt gulped, the three others giving him a glare before he zipped over to the king. "Say, Your Majesty… How about those rooms we can have? …And that daughter of yours too… Maybe she can have me! I _am _the definition of sexy, you know! HUH!"

Toadburt struck a pose, which looked rather stupid.

"Ugh… Just stop with it, Toadburt. You're making a fool of yourself…" Bonnie groaned.

"Honestly, why aren't any chicks digging THIS hunk here? Your honor! I'll gladly take Lilia as my wife! You certainly won't regret it!"

"Well… I'll see into that…" King Braze trailed.

* * *

**Lilia's room-**

Nazuchi followed Lilia all the way up the stairs and to a room that was light blue, with the ground being pink and also having portraits of herself. He had never been in a girl's room before. Especially not a princess's.

"This room is really pretty… That's something I'll admit." Nazuchi smiled, his face flushing red. "So... Why did you bring me here?"

"Listen, please. I have a reason to be talking with you here." Lilia explained. "I had a feeling you would be the only one to believe me."

"Huh? Believe you about what?"

Lilia walked over to her bed and sat on it. She let Nazuchi take a seat too. "Well, there's a reason why I'm here and not at my mother's castle. You see… My mother's castle was destroyed by a dark queen who showed up out of nowhere…"

"A dark queen? Who is she?"

"Well, I don't know! She called herself the Shadow Queen, and her evil minions helped destroy the castle. My mother wasn't lucky to make it, but I was saved by…a brown hedgehog. I was lucky to get out of there… His speed… It was amazing."

"A hedgehog? And did you say it moved fast? Odd… So, if that Shadow Queen destroyed your mother's castle… Is it possible she'll be coming…"

"Yes, she's going to be coming here. I told my father, but he refused to believe me. It's like he treats me as a child! This is why I don't like being a princess!"

"You don't? But why?"

"Being a princess feels boring. Plus, you sometimes get married to people you don't even like. I wish I had a choice in choosing someone..."

"Er... Yeah... That'd be good for you..." Nazuchi trailed, his face flushing red again. "So... Who would you...choose?"

Lilia had noticed Nazuchi's face, and her face had instantly flushed red as well. "...Er, let's get back on topic as well. Though, maybe I do have an idea..."

Nazuchi's face instantly got redder.

"Listen... My father doesn't believe me when I told him... Do you?"

"Well... I guess so."

"Thanks," Lilia smiled, giving him a hug. "Look, maybe you can help me... You see, the Shadow Queen is invincible, but the only thing that can beat her is-"

Suddenly, the door burst open, and behind the door was King Braze and Dimentio.

"L-Lilia? Wh-What are you doing with him?!" King Braze gaped, noticing Lilia still hugging Nazuchi.

"Father?!" Lilia shrieked, letting him go. "Why did you barge into my room? You know you can't do that!"

"Uhhh... What she said!" Nazuchi added.

"Thank you very much for telling me that these two were up in my daughter's room, Dimentio," King Braze thanked.

"Ah ha ha ha ha! It's not a problem, my king!" Dimentio cackled. "I simply HAD to show what your daughter was doing with Lighten's apprentice! See? I was right! Perhaps they do have a little something for each other!"

"Dimentio, would you mind escorting Nazuchi out of here? He is no longer welcomed in here…"

"As you wish. Come now, Blondie! Chop chop!" Dimentio said while snapping his fingers at his last sentence.

"Wait… So YOU were stalking us this whole time? You… Were you purposely trying to get me out of this castle?" Nazuchi gaped as Dimentio raised his hands and summoned a box around Nazuchi.

"Hmmm… Maybe, maybe not. But, time will tell on that! As for now… Ciao!" Dimentio snapped his fingers and Nazuchi was teleported out of the room.

"Father! What were you doing?!" Lilia asked. "I was telling him something important!"

"Lilia, you should know that Nazuchi is not a royal boy!" King Braze explained. "He may be the apprentice of Lighten, one of my best warriors, but he is not exactly royal material. Besides, I have finally decided on who you'll be marrying. You may come in!"

"Did somebody call the 'Super-Awesome-Hot-Toad'?" Toadburt asked as he zipped into the room and saw Lilia, giving her a flirty look. "Well, hello there, beautiful! Why am I calling you beautiful? Well, the name 'beautiful' is right on you! I'm gonna be yer new husband! Yup! And yer goin' to LOVE me!"

"You're making me marry HIM? But… Why him?" Lilia gawked. "_His attitude is already bad..._ Maybe you should give me a choice who to marry instead of forcing me!"

"Well, Toadburt here is marrying you, and that's final. Nazuchi is forbidden to see you ever again." King Braze officially stated. Lilia had her head hung low, and a tear dropped down from her face.

* * *

**Outside of town-  
**

The sky seemed rather peaceful…until a red portal appeared and a gray ship that had a red visor came out and hovered down onto the ground. This was rather odd, considering that there were never any futuristic things around this world.

A hole appeared from the top of the ship, and a woman in a gray power suit came out. Her right arm had an arm gun that could fire blasts of energy out, and the pauldrons were covered in spikes. She also wore a jetpack that could help her fly around.

"So… This is the place, huh? Well, this is a rather interesting world to find those monsters. It certainly is a lot different than my world..." the woman named Mars trailed. "I should be on guard. You never know what could show up…"

Mars had her gun ready and carefully walked around the plains. All she saw was a hedgehog covered in brown fur and straight quills, who was running away from the town.

"Hmmm… I better check who that is…" Mars began to rush on ahead to see who that hedgehog could possibly be. Unfortunately, she didn't notice darkness that was coming toward the town.

* * *

**As you can see, some of these characters are ancestors of some other characters. Lighten is obviously an ancestor of Meta Knight, and Mars is an ancestor of Samus. As for the hedgehog...who do you THINK he would be an ancestor of? No, not Shadow. I know it's odd for me to put in stuff like this, but I like how it became!  
**

**If you don't know, Nazuchi is Chopper's ancestor. His name kind of means "mysterious alien person" in Japanese, since he looks kind of odd for his species. This may not exactly be GREAT...but I'll admit it has some cool stuff to it! And no, it's not all romance. The REAL action starts next chapter.**

**As for the four heroes... That personality for Toadburt is what I imagined from him. Seriously, I HAD to make him like that! ...And what is Dimentio doing in this? I'd rather not answer that yet...but he sure was a jerk for what he did to Nazuchi! Not much else I can say at this moment. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter!**


	2. Tagel's End

Chapter 2: The Destruction of the Town

Lilia was lying down on her bed, thinking about Nazuchi for the moment. She felt so upset thanks to her father not allowing her to see Nazuchi anymore. After all, he was the only one to believe her...

"Great... This is just what I wanted. I thought I was going to get some help for a moment, but then my father had to ruin it." Lilia groaned. "There was nothing going on between us anyway! ...Though, I'll admit, he is pretty cute. But I guess fate was just not on my side."

Lilia sighed and got up to look out the window. It was night outside at the moment. "Well... Maybe Nazuchi might get some people to help me. I heard he was a really good guy. Perhaps his mentor will give him the help he needs? Ugh... I don't know right now..."

"Well, looks like somebody is feeling a little depressed today!"

When Lilia turned around, she gasped when she saw Dimentio was behind her.

"YOU! Get out of my room right now!"

"Ah ha ha ha ha. I'm not here to harm you, my dear." Dimentio assured as he hovered over the ground. "I'm only here to see how you were doing, that's all! There's no harm in that now, is there? It _is_ the king's orders for me to keep an eye on you."

"I don't want you in my room. It's your fault that I can't see Nazuchi anymore." Lilia growled. "You should leave right now. And even if you try to hide, my necklace can see through invisibility…"

"Ah, a necklace to keep stalkers away? Such a nice necklace… If it were to see through things, I would keep that away from Toadburt if I were you… There's a reason why you wouldn't let him take it…"

Lilia crossed her arms and turned away from the jester. "Well I'm not interested in him. I highly doubt he would believe what I would have to tell him. At least Nazuchi believes me about what happened to my mother."

"Your mother? Was she killed by the Shadow Queen, perhaps?"

"How do you know about that?" Lilia asked. At that moment, she gasped and stepped back. "Wait… No, this isn't right. Were you… Were you involved in that whole incident?"

"Ah ha ha ha ha… You already found out, have you? Oh… You are one smart girl to find me out…" Dimentio grinned as he raised his finger as he stepped closer to her, making her eyes widen. "Well, I wouldn't say I necessarily got involved, but I know of it."

"Wh-What are you going to do?!" Lilia took a step back and looked at the window. It was obviously too high to take a jump. That would be suicide!

"Well, I obviously can't let you tell your father about this. I have a little surprise for you! Before I take care of you, how about you get to be one of the first people of this town to see something more advanced than you would ever think of? I would just LOVE to see a new creation the Shadow Queen has!"

"What do you mean?"

"As of now, she has two witches that were created to aid her. There's one that looks witch-like and is hunched back, and another one that is obese and stupid like a dodo bird! This other being, however, is being created in a secret lab with the help of the Shadow King and Queen's own power and made to be stronger than those witches! He'll probably be the next Shadow King! Now, allow me to show you some advanced technology…then I'll see what to do with you."

"No! Don't you DARE try anything on me!" At that moment, a box appeared around her, and she disappeared along with Dimentio before she could finish.

* * *

**Out in space-**

When they reappeared, they were no longer on the planet, but in space. While space didn't have air, a barrier was surrounding her and Dimentio as they floated around.

"Where are we…and what's below us?" Lilia asked.

"Why… We're in space!" Dimentio explained. "This is where you go to when you leave Earth! And below us? Why, that's the planet we all live on! I'm not surprised that you have no clue what this place is. Allow me to show you what the queen is planning!"

Dimentio brought her to a giant space station that was silver and had green glowing eyes. At one of the windows, a couple of people could be seen by a tube containing a black spherical-shaped being with white eyes, a white mouth, skinny arms and whites gloves with black cuffs, black feet and two antennas.

"That creation… It looks similar to Nazuchi! But… I don't know why it does!"

"Oh, he has been planned for a long time…" Dimentio trailed. "He does seem to have some useful power that I could use… The Dark Prognosticus does need someone who can cause utter destruction. He fits perfectly! Ah ha ha ha ha!"

"Dark Prognosticus?"

Dimentio snapped his fingers and a black book appeared out of thin air. "You see, this book could be used to ruin one's life and make them merely a puppet for the one who created this book! Since the creator no longer exists... I could use it to... Well, the rest of that is just private matters."

Lilia didn't know what to say. All she could do was watch what was going on in the space lab. A person made of wood with leaves for hair was in that room along with an Eskimo and cloud person in lab coats. There was one person, or rather, monster that caught her attention. A fiery, lizard-like dragon beast in red and black armor, and also covered in flames was at the door, aiming its futuristic red and black rifle at them.

"How far until the project is done?" the Tartara snarled.

"It's just about done! We just need to give it a name." the Eskimo explained. "The Shadow Queen DID want us to give it, er, him a name. It's strange that he's not a purple color, since we USED her DNA to make him."

"How about we name him, er… Shadow?" the tree suggested.

"Seriously? I know it could fit him, but that's just…bland." the cloud person stated.

"Oh, yeah... That IS bland." the tree person realized. "How about Dark?"

"That's STILL bland!" the Eskimo growled. "In fact, even if we were to name it 'Guy-With-Antennas', it would be so dumb!"

"We need to give him a unique name like…Tipral! Yes, that sounds like a unique name!" the cloud person declared.

"Tipral? Well... I guess that's a little different. Though, I don't get the name..."

"It works, I suppose.

"Then Tipral it is! Now let's just throw this in along with the other useless stuff that we've made. Surely we can use it for something else later…" the cloud person trailed as he pressed a green button and emptied the fluid inside. "So… Who wants to help me put this in the room with the other useless stuff until the Shadow King dies?"

"Let's hope he turned our right," the Eskimo hoped. "The Shadow Queen wanted to make sure he had no emotion so it would make him a force of nature. He's supposed to be one powerful being anyway."

"What about the rings we were given?" the tree mentioned. "They're important to make sure his power is under control."

"What? Rings?"

"We were told that with the DNA taken from the Shadow King and Queen to create him had some side effects. If we don't give him something that could keep him under control, he'll die."

"Then get them on quickly! Before he..."

At that moment, Tipral's eyes opened and were glowing light purple. He ended up unleashing purple star energy upon everyone, including the Hellspawn and incinerating them all.

"Eep! That… What was THAT?!" Lilia gasped.

"Ah ha ha ha ha… See? That is why he is a good pawn for the Dark Prognosticus!" Dimention cackled. "His powers are formidable, I will admit!"

"Hmmm?" Tipral's eyes faded to white as he began to look around in the laboratory. He looked at his arms and also his feet. He noticed two golden rings were on a table, so he walked over there and took them.

"What is...this place?" Tipral wondered as he put on the rings. "Was I just born?"

However, he stopped when he saw the remains of the people who were blasted by his attack. Little did the scientists and the Shadow King and Queen know that DNA with no emotion make DNA with emotion.

"Oh, no... Did I just kill a bunch of people? This... This isn't right!" Tipral gasped as he left the room. "Even as I'm born, I end up killing people... Am I...too dangerous?"

He stopped at the moment when he came across a human child with a white dress, a rainbow stripe around her waist, long, light brown hair and a rainbow butterfly ribbon on top of her hair.

"Hi there!" the girl greeted cheerfully. "Are you all right?"

Tipral blinked as he looked at the little girl. "Who... Who are you?"

"My name? My name is Timpani! You look like something bad happened at the moment. Like… You're feeling bad."

"I'd rather not tell you. It's probably too much."

"Don't keep it a secret! It's not good to keep it to yourself! It's not healthy!"

"How do you know this?"

"Because my parents told me. But sadly, I can't seem to find them anywhere..."

"You can't find your parents?" Tipral gawked. "Then what are you doing here?"

"I'll tell you once you tell me what's wrong with you," Timpani stated.

"Fine... I accidentally killed a couple of scientists. I tried to resist it, but my power ended up unleashing upon them and killing them..." the dark being's head hung low as he closed his eyes. "I feel horrible and alone..."

"Don't worry, I feel a little alone as well. My family came here a week ago, but they ended up leaving me here on accident."

"And no one came back here to take you back home?!"

"Apparently not... We were taken here by a shaman because she wanted to see the great experiments. However, she was pretty ill, so chances are she became too weak to send some help or died."

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that." Tipral frowned. "I guess you've been through worse than I have. ...Is it OK if I stay with you until you find a way home?"

"I'm fine with that!" Timpani nodded. "By the way... You never told me your name."

"My name...is Tipral."

* * *

**Outside-**

"Well, I think that's enough with this," Dimentio declared. "Now, what I'm going to do with you is the important part…"

"Listen, you evil EVIL clown! You're NOT going to be trying anything to stop my father!" Lilia growled. "I'm going to warn Nazuchi right now and my father will have you executed! I can assure you that!"

"Ah, yes! Nazuchi... Oh, I know what I'm going to be doing with him! I'm not one to be cruel on children, but I think that boy is a big threat… I'll let the king handle him! As for you, I have orders to take you somewhere to finish the deal. Ciao, Princess Lilia!"

Dimentio snapped his fingers while Lilia screamed as she was teleported elsewhere. He simply cackled and teleported out of space.

* * *

**Lighten's house-**

Nazuchi and Lighten were training again with swords. They usually did this before they went to sleep, the morning, the afternoon, and the evening. And no, they don't train 24/7, just so you know.

"Stay sharp now!" Lighten told his apprentice as he swung his wooden sword toward him, but Nazuchi blocked his attack. "Good… You're improving a bit! Now it's time for the cartwheel spin. Allow me to show you."

"Cartwheel spin?" Nazuchi gawked.

Lighten jumped up and began to spin his sword vertically. He was moving across the room while doing this, which made Nazuchi stare in awe. Lighten stopped and landed on the ground.

"That is the Cartwheel Spin. Whenever you want to clear a path, that's what you use. You try it." Lighten stepped out of the way so Nazuchi could do it. He jumped, but before he could do the cartwheel, they heard the door come down.

"NAZUCHI!"

They stopped and saw King Braze with a couple of Koopas and also Dimentio, who was floating behind the king with a smirk.

"Nazuchi! Where is my daughter?" King Braze roared.

"Lilia? What are you talking about?" Nazuchi gawked. "You said I couldn't see her ever again! I wouldn't take her or anything! I was right here!"

"Yes, there is no way he could've taken her," Lighten spoke up, defending his apprentice. "Nazuchi was with me the whole time. I didn't see him go off on his own and take her. Besides, he knows that he shouldn't kidnap people anyway."

"Well Dimentio said that he saw you taking my daughter out of the castle through the window!" King Braze hissed. "You even left a rope behind as evidence, and even some of your hair was on the rope too…"

One of the Toads held up a rope, which had a tiny bit of blonde hair on it.

"What the heck?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Of course he did it, Your Honor!" Dimentio confirmed. "He was so desperate to see his true love even when he wasn't supposed to. That's why she came with him, so she could be with him and not Toadburt!"

"What?! I'm telling you I never kidnapped her! I'm not a bad person or someone who likes to kidnap princesses! I'm pretty sure an evil Koopa will come one day and kidnap a princess! Don't I even get a say in this?"

"No!" King Braze snapped. "Nazuchi, you are BANISHED from this town!"

"Your Majesty, I cannot let you do that," Lighten defended. "How will I explain this to his parents? They wanted me to train him, and you're simply banishing him for something he didn't do. You have no right to banish him!"

"I'm the king! I'm allowed to do what I want! I'm above the law, as you should know! Dimentio! Do me a favor and escort Nazuchi out of this town. If you're ever caught here again, you'll be executed, Nazuchi!"

"Why, I'll certainly do that!" Dimentio grinned as he instantly teleported Nazuchi out of the house while disappearing as well.

"You've gone too far now, Braze!" Lighten roared. "Sending my own apprentice out of this town is going too far for my standards!"

"How dare you talk to me like that?! Refer to me as your king!" King Braze roared.

"No, not after what you've done. You're no longer my king!"

"Guards! Seize him" King Braze ordered as the two Toad Guards rushed toward Lighten with their spears. However, being stronger, Lighten drew Galaxia and struck the two guards. Not enough to kill them, but enough to leave them injured and unable to fight back.

"Leave my house or you'll suffer the same fate as them, and I do not wish to do that. I already feel bad enough that I wounded two of your guards...

"So be it, then," King Braze left the house, which allowed Lighten to sit in peace…but he has a feeling that he needs to go find Nazuchi.

"Now's not the time to find him. I must start my search in two hours. It'll be light enough then." Lighten sat down as he watched the sun rise.

* * *

**Out in the grasslands-**

"La la la la!" a light gray puffball with dark gray feet and gray blushy cheeks was skipping out on the open field of the grasslands. Despite being eight, he was not your typical innocent kid. Oh, no. He's an immature kid that cracks immature jokes and tries to act "cool" around people...kind of like Toadburt! Another thing to mention was that he carried a magical paintbrush with him. It had a strange effect on people depending on what color paint he used.

While he was skipping across the grass, he saw the four heroes traveling on the dirt path, making him stop for a moment.

"Huh? Who the heck are those four?" Chalk wondered as he hid behind a bush. "And why is one of them wearing a cape? Hey, maybe I can take it and be... Super Chalk! I'll be so awesome and stuff!"

"All right, guys!" Toadburt announced as he turned to his "friends". "King Braze wanted us to go find her daughter, which I heard from that weird clown that she was taken someplace far from here. We gotta go find her so I can marry her!"

"No offense, Toadburt… But I don't think she even WANTS to marry you." Koopo informed. "She's more into that Nazuchi kid than you. I think that wasn't a really good thing to do, taking her away from someone else that loves her."

"Yeah, I gotta agree with that, but come on! Wouldn't she prefer someone hot like me than some stupid blonde kid? Well, that's why I'm gonna rescue her! …Oh, and I was lucky enough to get our money back too!"

"Where is our money, then?" Goombi asked.

"Oh, the money? I spent it on this super-awesomely-cool badge that'll make you… Hmmm… I forgot now. But now we can try to save the world from any villains and be awesome! …Oh, and I got this cape, because it totally makes me look badass."

_"We're doomed…" _Bonnie thought while face palming.

"Plus, the chicks dig the cape too!"

The others eventually joined Bonnie with their hands connecting to their faces.

However, they stopped when they saw the sky turn red, and the clouds changed black and began to cover the sky.

"What the heck? Is it that season already?" Chalk wondered as he looked up at the sky before feeling it shake violently. "WAAAAAAAH! MY LEG! ...Wait, I don't have legs! I'm cool with that!"

_**"****Muh huh huh huh huh… I shall engulf this whole place in darkness and wipe away all existence here! Yesss… It sounds like a perfect plan!" **_

Chalk saw high above the sky a dark and evil queen's spirit that was purple and also had a large crown and hair with the ends curling up.

"Whoa, nelly! I NEED to get out of here!" Chalk cried as he fled from the dark area as fast as possible before being noticed. "I don't want some stupid queen thing ruining my day! I was going to put up a stand for free hugs!"

_**"****Excellent… Everything shall soon be under my control! Just as I did to the previous land!"  
**_

At that point, the four heroes looked up at the evil queen.

"Hold on… What's going on?" Bonnie gawked. "Wait… I remember her! The Shadow Queen…"

"So she is going to attack the town," Koopo realized. "Well, we can't let her do that! We NEED to fight back."

_**"Muh huh huh huh... Shall we get started, my minions?"****  
**_

The minions began to let out numerous cheers, resulting in her grinning.

_**"Good... Let us go!"**_

The Shadow Queen started to make her way to the town, leaving the four heroes to gape.

"We can't just let her get to that town!" Koopo gaped. "We gotta stop her!"

"How can we?" Bonnie asked. "That queen is too powerful for even us. We tried before, and it didn't succeed."

"Yeah... We can't do much about the town. It's already doomed." Goombi sighed. "As much as I wanted to help, we have to keep moving. There is one thing that can beat the queen."

"Yup!" Toadburt exclaimed confidently. "So, let us move forward! And we can also get Lilia so I can marry her!"

The rest scowled at him as he led the way away from Tagel.

* * *

**By a dock-**

"Whoa, Bro! Look at the sky! It changed!" a blacksmith in black overalls and a white shirt, with a white cap said.

A shorter, chubbier blacksmith was with him, with a mustache that gets all of the ladies and a black cap with white overalls and a black shirt was with him as well.

"It was fine a while ago, but why did it suddenly change?" the taller blacksmith named Luber asked. "I thought this would be a nice place to go to! Didn't you think so, Bro?"

"Yeah, I thought so," the shorter, but older brother named Malion nodded. "So much for thinking this place was great..."

They got off the boat and noticed a couple of Goombas coming after them. Being the blacksmiths they were, they stomped on them, since that was their job. In all honesty, they didn't spend much time making weapons anyway.

"Well this is a nice welcome…" Lubert commented sarcastically. "First we find the sky red, and now Goombas come in and attack us! This just isn't a nice welcome…"

"Let's hope things get a little better from here..." Malion hoped as they made their way out of the harbor.

* * *

**Outside of Tagel-**

"Wait! Don't move!" Mars cried as she was trying to catch the brown hedgehog, but he was too fast for her. He didn't even notice her anyway. She was forced to stop and catch her breath.

"Dang it… He got away. I could've asked him some questions. Now what am I supposed to do around here? My ship is out of power at the moment after coming here. If only I had something that could refuel it. …But there's nothing around here that could give it power. It's not the kind of world I was expecting…"

Before she could move onward, she heard the sound of cackling behind her, so she turned and saw the evil shadow demon and her minions making her way toward her. She would've challenged them, but with the size of the army, there was no way she'd stand a chance. Looking around, she had spotted a bush nearby and decided to hide behind it, hoping it would keep her safe.

"As much as I don't want to do this, I don't have much of a choice..." Mars thought.

When the Shadow Queen stopped near the bush, she had gotten a better view of Tagel. _**"Ahhh... Excellent! So this is finally it! This is the other town to that king..."**_

"So, shall we prepare the assault?" the Shadow Queen's bounty hunter asked.

_**"Of course, Yorishi. The assault shall finally begin! Come, my minions! Let us tear this entire town to the ground!"**_

Wasting no time, the Shadow Queen led her army into Tagel. Once they were away from the bush, Mars finally stood up, surprised by the army.

"Whoa... I've never seen an army that massive..." Mars gawked. "So these are the things that I was told to hunt down... Well, this might be tougher than I thought."

* * *

**Lighten's house-**

"…Why did King Braze have to do it? He banished Nazuchi, my apprentice, out of this town…" Lighten trailed, who was sitting on his rocking chair. "And it will probably cost me my job after wounding His Majesty's guards. I can't believe I DID that…"

However, he stopped rocking when he felt some shaking. When he looked out the window, the shaking stopped, and he noticed the sky looked a lot different.

"Huh? The sky… It's becoming dark!" Lighten walked outside and saw the Shadow Queen and her minions coming toward the town. "Great… Just what we needed. I need to warn the king about this! …Hold on, I need to look for Nazuchi! …I even promised myself that I would look for him. I'm sorry, my king… I cannot break a promise. You have to handle this yourself."

Lighten jumped, and his cape turned into wings. He began to fly off out of the town before the Shadow Queen and her minions could even cause havoc. When he turned around, he saw the castle had been severely damaged. Along with that, many inhabitants were being chased around, with some even being eradicated by the minions. This was a horrible sight for him, seeing the town he once lived in being destroyed.

It was so hard to bear that he started to looking away.

"So I would've been too late if I had tried to save King Braze..." Lighten realized, flying away from town before he was spotted.

As for King Braze, he couldn't make his escape from these shadow demons either. The Shadow Queen had already broken into his castle, and she had used one of her purple, demonic hands to grab a hold of him and prevent his escape.

_**"So... You are King Braze, correct?"**_ the Shadow Queen asked. _**"So sorry about the damage I caused. I can assure you that it'll be all fixed up in time."**_

"Wh-Who are you? And why is the sky dark?" King Braze wheezed.

_**"I am your worst nightmare!"**_

"W-Worst nightmare?! Wh-Where is my daughter? Tell me now!"

_**"Oh, don't worry... I'm sure your daughter is somewhere safe... Though, I don't know how long she'll last!"**_ the Shadow Queen cackled. _**"So, do you have any last words before I finally destroy you and your pathetic town?"**_

"Ugh... I..."

The Shadow Queen wasted no time, and with a flash from her eyes, lightning had struck King Braze, completely obliterating him and leaving nothing behind.

All the Shadow Queen could do was grin as Tagel was being wiped out.

* * *

**Yeah, there's a lot of things introduced in here, such as the puffball Chalk, the dark moment with the Shadow Queen destroying King Braze and the two blacksmiths Malion and Lubert. I wonder who these guys are ancestors of anyway...**

**And you're probably wondering what the whole Tipral and Timpani thing is all about... Well, it doesn't play a MAJOR role in this story, but those moments WILL be important for something else in the future. Don't expect to see a lot of those too.  
**

**Now with that aside, we will see what happened to Nazuchi and the others in the next chapter.**


	3. The Sword of Light

Chapter 3: The Sword of Light

With all of the buildings torn to shreds, there was absolutely nothing left of Tagel. The castle, Lighten's home, the people... They left nothing behind. Some of King Braze's soldiers had tried to fight them off, but not even they stood a chance against them.

_**"Everything's set, my queen,"**_ a dark, gooey shadow demon with white eyes called a Shadoo said, approaching the queen.

_**"Excellent…"**_ the Shadow Queen smirked. _**"You all did a very nice job tearing this whole place down. Thinking about it more, I believe I'd like to set up a new town here that suits me."**_

_**"Uhhh... Ma'am?"**_ another Shadoo spoke up, approaching its queen. _**"We were given a message by Lord Maquano about him coming here to see the two Shadow Sirens."**_

_**"Oh, really? Good! I was just wondering about that. ...But, I believe the correct term is 'three' Shadow Sirens."**_

_**"There's a third now?"**_

_**"Yes... Just recently! I have high hopes for her compared to the other two."**_

At that point, another figure had teleported within the vicinity. The Shadow Queen turned around and had met with a knight in a black helmet with red, glowing eyes, three, gray spikes protruding from the top, and a gray stripe on the sides of his helmet. He also wore black and red armor, while his leggings were a dark gray and black with red knee pads. He wore red shoulder pads with black spikes, and his gauntlets and boots were black, having a vertical, red stripe on them. He also wore a black cape, and on his back was a red sword with a black handle.

_**"Ah, Lord Maquano! It is good to see you!" **_the Shadow Queen smiled._**  
**_

"It is good to see you too," Maquano replied, looking at the destruction before him. "So, you finally brought an end to this town. You could've asked me to come. The Tartaras and I would've loved to destroy a town."

_**"Yes, yes... I'm aware of that."**_

"Well, what's done is done. I can't do much about it now. Now where are those two witches I needed to see?"

_**"I believe it's three now," **_the Shadow Queen corrected.

"Three? So... You created a third one?" Maquano gawked, soon giving her a serious look. "Why?"

_**"I won't bother asking you why. Just take a look at them yourself, and I'll let you judge."**_

"So be it."

Maquano saw three purple shadow beings in front of him. One looked hunched back and had a blue and white-striped hat. The younger one was fat with orange hair and a yellow and white-striped hat. The youngest had pink curly hair and a red and white-striped hat.

"Hmmm… So these are them? I suppose the one with the pink hair is the youngest... Let me take a look at them." Maquano walked over to the eldest Shadow Siren and looked at her. "This one… You named her Beldam? Yes, I recognize her from somewhere. She seems hunched, and I don't like that nose... That could be bad if she's going to be the next queen. And her magic is ice? Bah! We can't have an icy queen!"

Maquano walked over to Marilyn next.

"So this one is Marilyn, isn't she? Speak now!"

"Guhhhhh?" Marilyn grunted.

"Great... Just what we needed... I'm sorry, queen, but these Shadow Sirens have problems. There's no way we can have this...thing become the next queen."

_**"Hmmmmm... A shame, I suppose..." **_the Shadow Queen trailed.

"So, what did you name the youngest one?"

_**"****I decided to name her Vivian."**_

"I see… There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with her. I honestly have nothing bad to say to her. That hat must indicate her fire abilities…and that hair. Let me do something for a second." Maquano lifted the curl from Vivian and he saw her eyes. From what he could see, they were absolutely gorgeous. They were as if they could put someone of the opposite gender into a trance. Maquano quickly lowered the curl of hair to prevent such a thing.

"Ah, yes… These eyes can really help her. It's almost like hypnosis... I think she would be the perfect one to be the next queen. If no men listen to her, her eyes will do the trick! ...Now, where is the creation that you requested? It was supposed to be here!"

_**"****Unfortunately, I have no clue... We can't get a location on him." **_the Shadow Queen explained.

"What? Without him, our plans won't fully succeed! Urghh… This is just great!"

_**"Do you have any ideas?"**_

"As of now, no..." Maquano trailed, stepping away from the queen. "We weren't necessarily given the location of the space station he's being made in. Next time when we try to create something, we should remind ourselves to know of the space station's whereabouts."

The Shadow Queen noticed him step away from her and the Shadow Sirens. _**"So, what do you plan on doing?"**_

"Not much. It's not like we were going to use him for much after we took over the world."

_**"Are you going to tell the Shadow King about this?"**_

"Hmmmmmm... Probably not. He can find out on his own."

With that, he teleported out of the vicinity, leaving the Shadow Queen and her three witches left.

"So, my queen..." Beldam started. "Is there anything you request?"

_**"Hmmmm... I want you three to watch over the Shadoos. Make sure they don't slack off with the creation of my new town!"**_

"As you command, my queen!" Beldam turned to her sisters. "Let us go, my lovelies! Marilyn! Vivian!"

With that, the three had made their exit. The Shadow Queen then turned to her bounty hunter beside her.

_**"As for you, Yorishi..."**_ the Shadow Queen started. _**"I want you to go check out how things are in the Grass Lands. I believe there may be a big threat heading there..."**_

"Understood," the figure nodded, making his exit.

_**"Muh huh huh huh... Excellent! Everything is going smoothly!"**_

* * *

**?-**

Nazuchi slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying down, facing the blue sky. When he brought his head up, he found himself lying on the grassy plains. It was a little hilly, but there wasn't much around except for a beautiful pond and a couple of birds that flew away.

"Where… Where am I?" Nazuchi rubbed his head and rubbed his eyes. All he remembered was that Dimentio sent him out of the town. That's all he can remember at the moment, but he WAS starting to remember after a little bit. "Oh, yeah… King Braze… He thought I kidnapped Lilia. Well, I know I didn't! …But where has she gone? In fact, will I ever see her again?"

Nazuchi got up and he looked at the pond. It reminded him of Lilia for some reason. "Man... I can't believe he did something like that. I bet he also did that because he thought I liked her. ...Well, she is really pretty and all- No! Don't be thinking of that right now! But anyway, it doesn't look like I'm going to see her any sooner. Man, if only I had some help..."

"Well, what's this? Who might you be?" came a voice behind Nazuchi. He turned around and saw a man in a blue hood and had a white mustache. His face couldn't be seen, but his yellow eyes could. A small orb with a star on it could be seen by his mustache. "I never knew someone like you would be here! You're all alone out here? Well, it wouldn't be bad if I helped you, wouldn't it?"

"Who are you? And where am I?"

"Oh, I'm sorry! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is **Merlon**. I'm a shaman of this land, along with many others. I usually study old books and study magical spells that can be useful. And where are you? Why, you are in the Land of the Ancients! It's in the center of seven other distant lands."

"Land of the Ancients, huh? That's interesting... And your name is Merlon? Well, it's nice to meet you! My name's Nazuchi, apprentice of Lighten! …Some people tend to call me Blondie for my blonde hair. Am I the first blonde you've ever seen?"

"Oh ho ho!" Merlon chuckled. "…Well, maybe. I see you've come far from your home. Why, I even saw you lying on the ground! Would you happen to know what happened?"

Nazuchi began to explain everything to him, which he began to understand. "Ah, so you were sent here because a king thought you kidnapped a girl that you loved? Now, how exactly did you meet such a girl?"

"Well, when I first saw her, she just looked amazing. She wanted to talk to me about this Shadow Queen that was going to be coming to my town…though she even admitted that she thought I was cute and… Hold on, I don't think I should even be talking to you about this! Have you seen a clown in a jester hat?"

"A clown in a jester hat? No, I'm afraid I haven't. I only saw you and nothing else." Before Merlon could continue his speaking, a spirit suddenly appeared in front of them. Nazuchi's eyes shot wide open.

"Lilia? Is that you?" gaped Nazuchi.

_"Nazuchi! Are you there?"_

"Where are you? And how are you speaking to me?"

_"Yes, this is me. Although, I have no idea where I am right now. From what I can see so far, I'm high above the sky. It's kind of dark as well... I do have the power of telepathy with my necklace, but it seems like its power is draining. One thing for sure is that I probably won't be able to use this anymore after this message."_

"What?! You can't be serious!"

_"Sorry, Nazzy... I wish I could do more, but I can't... Farewell for now..."_ Lilia's spirit faded away as Nazuchi gaped.

"Lilia..."

"So, is that the fair princess you were speaking of? And did she say high above the sky?" Merlon pondered. "Hmmmmm... Then perhaps that is where the castle is..."

"Castle?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Yes. I recently heard of a floating castle that had been created high up in the sky. There's not a single thing that could reach up there."

"So that's where Lilia is? Oh, man..."

"However, it is not impossible to reach the castle. There is a way..."

"If there's a way, then I'm willing to go help her!"

Merlon held up an old, gray tablet. "This is called a **Land Tablet**. There are eight pieces all together. With all eight tablets, they will be able to open the way to **Battilio**, the great being that rests underneath this world."

"Battilio?"

"Many say he is a legend, but he is said to be a creature that can fly up to great heights, or even out of this world. However, no one has seen him before, and people consider him to be just a rumor. However, we shamans have picked up signs of great power below the Island of the Ancients that likely matches Battilio's power."

"So, with the Land Tablets, it is possible for me to find him?" Nazuchi asked.

"Yes... However, there is one problem." Merlon explained, holding the Land Tablet in front of Nazuchi. "This is supposed to be glowing, and it can only be activated by the Chosen One."

"Chosen One?"

"There's a little town that I live in called Myrtle Town. Many shamans such as myself live there. Up on the hill is a temple. In there is a legendary sword called the **Sword of Light**. If that sword is pulled by a specific person, it is said that that person is indeed a Chosen One..."

"If that's the case, then I'm going to give it a try," Nazuchi was about to go…

"…And hold on a moment," he fell over on the grass before getting back up and turning to the blue cloaked shaman. "Nobody has ever pulled that sword, so I'm not fully sure if you'll be able to pull it. But… We'll see if you can. Perhaps you COULD be the Chosen One…"

"All right, I'll go check that place out," Nazuchi nodded as he ran toward the town with many tents. He could see shamans in green, purple, red and even black cloaks. He saw up on the hill a gray temple. That was where he needed to go, he thought.

He got to the temple and easily opened the door. The room was pretty big, but he saw a pedestal with a golden sword stuck in it. Nazuchi walked over to it and looked at the glowing light.

"Wow, this sure is some sword! It's just so beautiful! BUT… Merlon said that it's not easy to pull the sword. Well, I really got no other choice, so I better do it!" Nazuchi grabbed onto the hilt of the sword and he felt it coming off the pedestal. "Is it just me or am I actually doing it? I mean, come on! I, of all people, am pulling this thing out of its…"

Nazuchi realized he DID pull it out of the pedestal. The statues of the wizards bowed down to Nazuchi as he held the glowing sword up like a hero.

_**Character: Nazuchi**_

_**Info: Being one of the only blonde people in town is tough, but he manages to push himself and actually try to not humiliate himself around his mentor or a person he has a crush on. Being trained by his mentor, Lighten, he knows a few skills with his sword and some skills with a bow.**_

_**Items: Sword of Light – The sword held by the Chosen One. With this, you can smite evil in your path! This is Nazuchi's main weapon and it cannot be changed.**_

"Whoa… That was amazing!" Nazuchi gaped as he ran out of the temple. Unfortunately, he came tumbling down the hill because he tripped over a ladybug…

After he got to the bottom of the hill, he saw his sword flying up in the air. He gasped and managed to catch the handle before it could hit the ground. He sighed with relief and went to town.

"Hey, look, people! You see what I just did? I just proved to you that blonde people are NOT dumb and can pull a sword from a pedestal!" Nazuchi shouted, which, in truth, sounded very lame, which the author could agree to.

"No way…"

"Did he actually pull that sword?"

"What's a blonde?"

"Well, now you see what I just did? I pulled your sword out of that pedestal!" Nazuchi smirked as he held up the sword. Merlon himself was impressed by this.

"I don't really believe it! So you ARE one of the heroes that would one day come in and save all lands. Nazuchi… I believe you can save us and all seven lands that are in danger." Merlon declared as he pulled out the Land Tablet that was active. "This is the Ancient Tablet. It is the first one of the Land Tablets. You can tell by its red writing on it. There are eight tablets all together. I will give this to you, and once you place it in the large door, it shall make a bridge to a new land. Will you accept this?"

"I will," Nazuchi nodded.

"Excellent! I knew you would accept it! So, then! Nazuchi, Brave Warrior, take the Ancient Tablet!" Merlon gave Nazuchi the Ancient Tablet and he held it up high.

**You got the Ancient Tablet!**

"Thank you very much! I'll place this in the empty door now!" Nazuchi declared walked over to the door with eight, empty squares. "So... Is this the door that leads to Battalio?"

"Many say that he is," Merlon confirmed. "They say that only the Land Tablets have the power to unlock this door and see the great being..."

"Well, then I might as well place this here," Nazuchi placed the tablet in the first empty space, which made the town shake and create a shining white light from the door.

At that moment, a red laser fired across this land and made a bridge that went over to a land across the sea that was covered in dark clouds. Merlon took a glimpse of the island and looked at Nazuchi.

"You finally did it, Nazuchi!" Merlon congratulated. "You've managed to open a new gate to the Grass Lands! Though, I must warn you… There are many dangerous beasts that are on that land, and they have been taken over by great evil... You never know where the next Land Tablet could be…"

"Well, I'm sure I can handle it!" Nazuchi smirked. "This sword should be pretty helpful anyway! It's the Sword of Light! It should let me take down those enemies no problem!"

"I see… Well I can't stop you. Just return in one piece, will you? Once you have that tablet in your hands, you will restore the land to light and the darkness covering it shall go away. HOWEVER… I don't think you will be the only one on this quest. The tablets say that there are six heroes that can reach the final land. Some say it's seven, but I'm mostly hearing six." Merlon remembered another thing as well before he left. "Oh, and Nazuchi… There's a friend of mine named Bestovius that you might want to see. He's a wizard that can give you something special at the Grass Land. He probably won't give any information out, but tell him I sent you."

"Interesting… I hope I can find more information, but I guess not. I'll be back with the next tablet!" Nazuchi assured as he took a step on the red bridge and disappeared from the island.

"Good luck, Nazuchi!"

* * *

**Grass Land-**

"Toadburt, we've been moving for a long time and we haven't found Princess Lilia anywhere," Bonnie noted as they walked across the grass lands, which were covered by dark clouds. "Don't you think we should just give up and go?"

"There's no way I'm giving this rescue up!" Toadburt retorted. "I know I used up our money on that badge that lets me do…well, it's just there to be cool. But, I used the money for a good reason! We can probably get some money if we kill any bad guys."

"That sounds like something you would get if you were playing an MMORPG," Koopo stated. "This is real life, you idiot."

"What's an MMORPG?" Bonnie asked.

"Ehhh... I don't know..." the Koopa shrugged before someone landed in front of them.

It was none other than Lighten.

"Well, if it isn't that kid's mentor!" Toadburt scoffed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for my apprentice," Lighten explained. "I know he didn't kidnap the princess. Wherever he went, I'm trying to find him. Have you seen him?"

"Nope. I didn't see him. So what if I didn't see him? There's no way he's getting the princess back! I'm the one who's marrying her!"

"You realize that she doesn't like you, right?"

"Of course she likes me! I'm Toadburt!"

"Hmph... So your ego is as big as you head then."

"Oh, BURNED!"

"Oooooooooooh!"

"He really dissed you, Toadburt!"

"Shut… S-Shut up! Look, masked cape guy. I'm obviously the better-looking one than Nazuchi. Besides, he's not hot like me! HUH!" Toadburt stammered as he made some stupid poses. Bonnie was forced to smack him across the face.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"For being a snobby jerk…" Bonnie replied.

"Very well, I'll leave you four alone for now," Lighten stated. "I'm going to search for Nazuchi on my own. If you EVER find him, tell me immediately. It's important that I find him. It's dangerous for him to be off on his own."

"You have our word," Goombi assured as Lighten flew off.

"I'm SO not a snobby jerk..." Toadburt sulked.

"Yes you are. Deal with it." Koopo stated.

_With Nazuchi thrown out of Tagel, Lighten was forced to go search for him. But, Nazuchi had his own little problem. Can he collect the eight Land Tablets and save Princess Lilia, or will this entire world be covered in darkness for all eternity. A huge adventure was about to begin…_

* * *

**Don't worry, this won't be the length of some of my other stories I've written that were over a hundred chapters long. And also, Lilia isn't Peach's ancestor. I mean, she's not even human! :P**

**I apologize if this chapter's too short for you. But this is kind of like the prologue. We'll definitely see some action next chapter...**

**P.S.: The blonde jokes are just humor. It wasn't meant to be offensive if you were offended. It's just you don't see a lot of blonde characters back then (well, in this story, at least).**


	4. The Adventure Begins

Chapter 4: The Adventure Begins

In a moment of time Nazuchi found himself across the bridge and onto a new land. The sky changed from blue to red to show that this place had been covered in darkness. Luckily, there weren't any enemies around, and not to mention Nazuchi's Sword of Light was surrounded in a light aura, so he could find his way around with that.

"Wow, look at this place… It's nice and all, but that sky just looks…yeah. It looks red and creepy. But what am I complaining about? I need to get those tablets and save Lilia!" Nazuchi declared. "She doesn't deserve to be kept somewhere forever! What will she eat? Will they let her bathe? And what about her personality? That could change her!"

At this point, he began to worry about Lilia, but he tried to fight it back.

"No… I can't think about her at the moment. That's going to distract me." Nazuchi looked up at the sky and thought he saw a cloud that looked like Lilia – but that was just his imagination.

"Stop it, Nazuchi… This isn't going to help you… And now I'm talking to myself. That's just great." he walked around and looked at the trees, but he stopped when he saw two Shadoos up ahead. One had spotted him and stretched its arm out to hit him.

Nazuchi's eyes shot wide open, but he simply swung his sword and a light beam fired out from his sword, which caused it to hit the two demons, causing them to get weakened. Their black color was surrounded by the bright light.

"Whoa, did I just do that? Interesting… Let's see what else this bad boy can do!" Nazuchi rushed toward the two Shadoos, and with one slash of the sword, he destroyed them with light power engulfing them.

"All right, I'm liking this weapon! I think it comes in handy!" Nazuchi looked around the grass for anything else. There wasn't a lot, but he did see some tall grass he could cut with his sword, which had some coins. "…Since when are coins hidden in the grass?"

He decided not to bother with that and he collected them before proceeding through the field. Nazuchi looked up at the red sky. If it wasn't like that, then maybe he would like this place a little more. Unfortunately, it was going to be like this until he found the Grass Tablet, which could be ANYWHERE.

A couple of dirt piles could be seen around. A Monty Mole rose up from one of the dirt piles and saw Nazuchi.

"Hey! Hey, kid! Over here!" the Monty Mole shouted.

Nazuchi turned around. "You mean me?"

"Yeah! You! Come over here!" Nazuchi shrugged and walked over to the Monty Mole, who looked anxious to see him.

"So, I heard that you're the hero, am I correct?"

"Wait, what? How would you know this?"

"How do I know? Well, let's say… I know that the hero carries the Sword of Light, OK? Well, I have a little something for you!"

"Huh?" Nazuchi scratched his head as the Monty Mole dove down into his hole to get something. He came back up with a Mushroom, some Syrup and also a rope.

"Listen, you're probably going to need this stuff. Well, mostly the rope. The Mushroom here is for replenishing your energy if you're getting exhausted, and this Syrup is for replenishing any magic you use."

"Magic? What in the world is that?"

"Man, you kids and your questions!" the Monty Mole sighed. "Well, magic is something that's used when you use some kind of special attack. If you spin your sword around with a bunch of energy, you'll use up magic. Also, if you shoot energy with a Sword Beam, you'll also use magic. That's how it goes for you. As for the rope… Well, let's just say you need to cross some gaps with that or climb up to some places."

"Well, thank you! Hopefully this'll be helpful for rescuing Lilia!"

"Princess Lilia? For some reason, that name sounds somewhat familiar..."

"Errrr... Well, anyway... Thanks for this."

"Don't mention it!" the Monty Mole assured. "You'll find plenty of other items around the world as well. I'd highly recommend picking them up! Of course, you can't carry everything around, and you might have to drop something else to get it. Well, that's all I have to say. For now, I'm gonna go home. Good luck!"

The Monty Mole dove into his hole, which only left Nazuchi to move on. Luckily, he ran into a river up ahead that was a little steep. Not to mention that there were a couple of Dark Fish in there that would try to hurt him.

"Eeeugh… Dark Fish are certainly not my thing." Nazuchi guffawed as he pulled out the rope. "Well, I hope this thing works. If it doesn't… Well, I want my money back!"

Nazuchi tossed the rope to the other side of the river. "I hope my leather boots are good enough for crossing over this river…"

He sloooooowly began to walk on the rope, making sure he didn't fall off. Some of the Dark Fish tried to chomp him, but he pulled out his sword and destroyed them with one slash.

"Almost there," Nazuchi huffed as one of the fish bit his sword, but it was destroyed by the light. He felt lucky that all the enemies here were dark kind, or else he would be in some trouble…

Once he made it across, he grabbed his rope, tied it up and sighed in relief. "Whew… That was close… I'm glad I made it out of there."

Nazuchi walked over to the tree and began to rest for a little bit - until a Piranha Plant rose from the ground. It one was covered in darkness, unlike a normal one.

"Whoa!" Nazuchi sliced its head off, which only left the stem, which then turned into a stick. "Huh? That's strange…The stem turned into a stick… That's something you don't see every day."

He looked up and saw a couple of apples on the tree. They were in many shapes. One was shaped like a circle, one was shaped like a diamond and another one was shaped like a diamond. He looked down at his stomach and felt it growling.

"Hmmmm… I'm feeling a little hungry… But, this tree has apples! I think I'll have one!" Using his sword, he was able to cut one of the apples off of the tree and let it fall in the palm of his hand. "Time to dig in!"

He chomped down on the apple and after finishing it, red energy suddenly came from his mouth like it was a rainbow.

"Huh? What's this?" Nazuchi saw the energy land somewhere not much further away from his location. A house appeared with a red roof, making him tilt his head in confusion.

"…Was that supposed to happen?" he gawked.

But, he wasted no time and went over to the house to see who lived there. Apparently, the door had the name "Bestovius" labeled in black on the red door.

"This must be Bestovius's home, just like Merlon told me. I better go see him right away!" Nazuchi jumped up to the doorknob to open it, due to not being tall enough to reach it.

"I hate being short," Nazuchi grumbled. "It makes it hard to open doors…" Nevertheless, he got in the room, where he found a pale red rug and a red couch. It looked like this Bestovius liked red.

"Hmm? Where's Bestovius?" Nazuchi looked around the living room and he didn't find anyone. …Until he heard a yawn coming from upstairs.

_"Did I just hear a noise?"_

Nazuchi jumped up in shock and looked for somewhere to hide. He was lucky to find an empty closet – one that Bestovius never used. So he was lucky that he didn't get caught by him…yet.

A wizard in a red robe came down with a strange mustache and was sitting on a lavender cloud. He was certainly a strange-looking wizard to be sure! To show that he was a wizard, he had a green orb with a yellow star in it.

"I thought I heard something coming from down here… It must be my imagination." Bestovius trailed as he floated into the kitchen and got himself some coffee. He also got a cereal called Dimenti-O's. "Ah, these Dimenti-O's are delicious! I can't believe some strange-looking clown or whatever he is gave these to me. They have marshmallows! That makes them the greatest treat of all time!"

Bestovius began to chow down on his Dimenti-O's. He didn't hear a creek from the door coming from the other room, unfortunately for him.

Nazuchi slowly opened the door to find Bestovius eating Dimenti-O's. He could see the jester's face on the box. It reminded him of how dreadful that guy was. He was the reason why he was separated from Lilia to begin with.

"Gah! Why are there Dimenti-O's?" Nazuchi guffawed. "WHY would someone even think of such a cereal?!"

Bestovius's mustache sprung up and stopped eating, saying, "Hmmmmmmmmm? I think someone's in here…" in alarm as he floated out of the kitchen to find Nazuchi standing there with a startled look.

Instead of attacking the boy, he looked at him. "What is this meager golden-haired person that stands before me? And how does he have the audacity to address my oh-so-red-and-other-colored glory? …How did that green hat detect my house? This confuses me like the scent of a burnt pie…"

"Uhh… You're not gonna throw me out of the house?" Nazuchi gawked. "No clubs or maces? No magic? NOTHING?! Wow… You sure don't mind visitors coming into your house…"

"What's this? Stand right there, boy! Let me take a better look at you!" Bestovius raised an eyebrow as he pulled out his glasses and put them on to get a better look at Nazuchi. "Hmmmmmmm? Those leather boots…those conspicuous gloves…floppy hat…and…that SWORD!" Bestovius gazed at the Sword of Light. "I can't believe it! That sword you hold… You… You must be…"

"Yes…?" Nazuchi smiled as he was on his tippy toes.

"You're…my garden gnome!"

Nazuchi instantly fell over on his back.

"I don't understand how you're moving, but you simply must get back outside in the garden! How else will I scare away such terrible creatures?"

Nazuchi got up with steam coming from his head. "Are you SERIOUS?! You can't tell who the heck I am? I'm the HERO! This is the Sword of Light, RIGHT HERE!"

"Sword of Light? Now what could that possibly be?" Bestovius wondered, making Nazuchi face palm. How could he, one of those weird wizards, ever forget about the Sword of Light?

"You don't know about the Sword of Light? I thought Merlon's friend would know that!" Nazuchi gaped. "Oh, and he's the one that sent me here, just to let you know."

"Merlon? Oh, that guy… That full-bodied beard of his… If there's anyone who can rival my beard of hairy magnificence, it would be that guy. If only I could get the beard of intellect, I would be above all beards!"

"What the heck are you talking about? I don't understand what you're talking about… Why are you talking about beards? In fact, I don't even remember…" Nazuchi suddenly realized after a couple of seconds and snapped his finger. "Oh, wait! I remember! He wanted me to come here about the Grass Tablet!"

"Grass Tablet? Ah! Now I remember… The Grass Tablet is that Land Tablet that can help restore this land! If you're here for it, then I suppose you're the hero. _Well, I think… _But, since you came for the tablet, then I'll give it to you!"

"You really have the Grass Tablet?" Nazuchi gaped. "Well, give it to me right now so we can save this land!"

Bestovius reached into his pocket to take out some dust. "Well, because of this dust, I don't have the object you oh-so-desire to get. To be honest, it was stolen by some dark minions from a castle and a dragon. What a shame..."

"Are you serious? Crud… Now I have to go to the castle!" Nazuchi face palmed. "Not only that, but a DRAGON is there too!"

"Err… Well, I can give you something if you wish. Take this if you want." Bestovius took out a stick and gave it to Nazuchi. "You never know when you need to smack someone with that thing."

"A STICK?! This isn't going to help me! …But why is there a key at the end of this thing?" Nazuchi gawked before Bestovius sweat dropped and swiped the stick away from him.

"That's MY key, thank you very much… Now, what I REALLY wanted to give you were these." Bestovius pulled out a bomb bag filled with bombs. He _slowly _placed them on the ground in front of Nazuchi.

"Now, these bombs are kinda dangerous. I REPEAT. They are DANGEROUS! If they EVER touch fire, you're screwed. They'll explode in your face and, well, you might as well be dead. Not to mention you might lose that golden hair of yours."

"My hair's not golden," Nazuchi noted. "Well, I guess it's special to me. Besides, Lilia's got the same hair color as mine. I find that kind of interesting!"

"Ho ho ho! You mean Princess Lilia?" Bestovius chuckled. "So, how is she?"

"She's kidnapped..."

"Oh... Then that's a problem."

"That's why I'm on this quest though," Nazuchi said, appearing more confident. "I'm going to save her, and stop whoever's responsible for kidnapping her!"

"Hmmmm... You are quite brave to do something like that. Well, I won't stop him. Let me warn you, though. There's a town past a cave to the east. If you somehow succeed in getting through that cave, you'll find the town. But there's a small problem. Some of the townspeople ended up getting possessed by those horrid monsters. Do me a favor and try not to harm some of the people."

"Well, all right… Whatever you say, old man." Nazuchi picked up the bomb bag and put it away. "I better get going now. So, see ya!"

"Good luck, my gnome – er, Nazuchi!" Bestovius waved goodbye to Nazuchi as he left his house and continued his way to the east. "Finally... That kid was starting to get annoying! I gotta remind myself to keep people outta here."

* * *

**Fifteen minutes later-**

Nazuchi made a long walk through the grassy plains, but he found a rocky mountain nearby that had a cracked wall. This must be where the cave was, he thought as he pulled out a bomb.

"Well, I hope this works… Because if it doesn't, I'll eat my own boot." Nazuchi declared as he lit the fuse on the bomb and threw it by the cracked rock. When it exploded, a cave entrance was revealed.

"Great! I can finally go!" Nazuchi pulled his sword out and walked in because it was a little dark. But it wasn't as dark as he thought it would be. Heck, he could see everything just fine!

"This is a strange cave… But who cares? I'm here and that's how it's going to be." Nazuchi took a few steps in the cave until a couple of bats flew out of the cave. He ducked, but it didn't do much.

"There are BATS in here?! Man… I gotta watch my back next time…" he looked around in the cave. There wasn't anything special except for…grass? Well, this place IS a grassland, so it would make sense. He noticed a couple of unlit torches as he walked through the small cave, and not to mention a couple of small Dark Piranha Plants that wanted to take a bite out of him.

"Whoa!" Nazuchi found one of the plants trying to grab his sword with its teeth, but he managed to pry the sword out of its mouth and slash at its face. The plant screamed as it dropped a couple of seeds. Nazuchi grabbed them and looked at them. Apparently, these things would snap if they were thrown on the ground, almost like another particular item...

"I'll hold onto these until I need them," Nazuchi declared as he walked through the small narrow pathway until he found a larger area with spider webs on the wall and not to mention a couple of other things wrapped up.

"Whoa… Is this some kind of spider lair or something?" he looked at the objects hanging from the ceiling that were wrapped up. Two spiders were already catching two giant bugs.

"Dang it! They got Pete!" a Koopa cried. Nazuchi noticed two armored Koopas with spiked shells. "We can't just stand here! We gotta save 'em!"

"Well, what else can we do? We don't have the proper tools to get them down! We're weaponless!" the Koopatrol named Joe turned around and noticed Nazuchi and his sword. "Hey, we've got someone here! And at a good time, too!"

"Uhhhh... What's going on?" Nazuchi asked.

"Listen, kid… We got a bit of a problem here." Joe explained. "Y'see, our buddy Pete just got caught by these spiders. They're pretty dangerous, and they've got fangs that can inject venom into ya! But, since you got a sword, could you help us save our friend? He figured a way out of this place."

"Well, I guess I could do something. Stay here. I'll do the job…just as long as I don't get attacked by any spiders." Nazuchi grabbed onto the spider web and he began to climb up.

"Yeah! This is awesome!" Koobob smirked.

"WHICH ONE IS HE?!"

"HE'S THE ONE AT THE TOP!" Koobob yelled as Nazuchi nodded and continued to climb up to the top. He saw a big web sitting up at the top of the area. That's where Pete was stuck.

It didn't take long, but the spiders were finally alerted. They tried to bite at Nazuchi, but he slashed at them with his sword to take them out. They fell to the ground for the Koopatrols to finish them off with their spiky boots.

"Yeah! That takes care of them!"

"You betcha!"

Nazuchi listened to them cheer as he got to the top of the web. He didn't have to climb anymore, so he jumped down and cut the web off of Pete, who was cowering in fear.

"Please don't eat me!" Pete cried.

"Whoa, calm down! I'm not here to eat you!" Nazuchi assured. "I'm here to save you! Sheesh!"

"Oh… Phew! I guess I can get outta here before the…" Pete was interrupted when a large spider with a crown landed on the web.

"Who dares disturbs my rest?!" the queen roared.

"And you are…" Nazuchi trailed.

"I'm the Spider Queen! What are YOU doing here with my meal?! …Unless, you are another meal to me!"

"Pbbbbbbbbth! I'll never be a meal to anyone! Y'know why? 'Cause I got this sword!" Nazuchi slashed at the queen, leaving a scar on her face. She screamed as she tried to swipe at Nazuchi with her legs.

"You'll pay for that, you fool!" the queen roared. Nazuchi jumped out of the way and slashed at the queen again, leaving her stunned.

"I suppose I should finish this off…" Nazuchi made a big leap and brought his sword down on the Spider Queen's head, stabbing her and killing her in the last minute. It wasn't a long fight, but it was satisfying to him. That spider didn't even have a chance to hit him!

Nazuchi landed on the ground with Pete, who was reunited with his Koopatrol buddies. They hugged each other while Nazuchi found it to be a little awkward.

"You're all right, bro! I'm so happy!" Koobob cried.

"…Yeah, everything's good now," Pete sighed. "What could possibly be worse than being reunited?"

"MEEEEEEORK!" Everyone stopped when they saw a red Fuzzy drop from the ground. It was steaming with _RAGE_.

"What the meork was THAT all about?!" the Fuzzy yelled. "I decide to take a meork and then you meorks come in and interrupt my meork! I'm gonna MEORKIN' meork you for that!"

"Crud… Looks like the Angry Fuzzy just woke up from his nap." Joe sighed. "I thought that that fight with the spider was a bad idea…"

"Answer my meork!" the Angry Fuzzy exclaimed. "Who the meork is responsible for meorking me up?!"

"Uhhhh… IT WAS HIM!" Pete pointed at Nazuchi before he ran off with the other two.

"Hey! You can't run from me like that!" Nazuchi exclaimed. "Gimme some help here!"

"Nobody meorkin' cares, you meork! Now I'm gonna have to meork you up! MEEEEEEORK!" the Angry Fuzzy bounced over to him and knocked him back with a tackle.

"Hey! What was that all about?!" Nazuchi asked as he got up and brushed himself…until the Angry Fuzzy tackled him again.

"QUIT IT!" Nazuchi pulled out a Piranha Seed and he threw it in front of the Angry Fuzzy when he finally got up after being tackled so many times.

"Finally!" Nazuchi attacked the Angry Fuzzy with his sword. He slashed at it three times before the Angry Fuzzy charged at him with all its might, but it was held off by Nazuchi's sword. It knocked the Fuzzy back and allowed the Nazuchi to bring his sword down on it one more time. The Angry Fuzzy was knocked back toward the entrance.

"_**MEORK YOU!**_ I'm not meorkin' done yet, meork!" the Angry Fuzzy yelled as it bounced back over to Nazuchi, but this time it was covered in a fire aura. It nearly scorched him with its attack.

"Take that!" the blonde cried.

"Meork meork meork meork! Oh, are you meorking right now? Well, MEORK you! You're so gonna get meork'd again!" the Angry Fuzzy charged at Nazuchi with another fireball.

"Oh no you don't!" Nazuchi fired a Sword Beam straight at the Angry Fuzzy, sending it flying back onto the spider web. The Fuzzy tried all it could to get out, but alas, it was unable to do such a thing.

"MEEEEEEEEORK! Get me off of this meork, you meork!" the Angry Fuzzy yelled as Nazuchi looked up at the steaming red Fuzzy.

"Ehhh… I'd rather not. Seriously, take a chill pill! You know there's such a thing as calming down, right? Oh, forget it… I'm leaving." Nazuchi ran out of the cave before the Angry Fuzzy could curse at him again.

Let's hope he didn't have to run into that thing again.

* * *

**Outside-**

Nazuchi got out of the cave and found another grassy field with a town up ahead. "Well, there it is! That must be the town that Besotvius was talking about. This is it!"

Before he could take a step, he noticed some small, shadowy knights holding black swords patrolling the plains. One of them was able to notice Nazuchi walking out of the cave.

"Hold on a moment there, kid… What are you doing here?" the knight asked.

"What am I doing here? We-ell… I was…um…" Nazuchi stammered. "I was taking a little hike in the cavern! Do you have a little problem with that or something?"

The Darknight noticed Nazuchi's sword. "…You carry the Sword of Light. It's obvious you're after the Grass Tablet in our castle! Knights! Attack this boy at ONCE!"

"Uh oh…" Nazuchi gulped when he saw the Darknights coming toward him. He attacked the one in front on him, but he knew he was outnumbered.

…Until he remembered something.

_"Nazuchi! Remember the Sword Spin! It is vital that you use that if you're surrounded by many enemies!"_

Those were Lighten's words that he heard in his head. He knew what to do. He gripped his sword and brought his arm back. With immense power, he began to spin his sword around like crazy.

"**_WHOOOOOOOOA!_**" Nazuchi saw all of the Darknights fall when they tried to mob him. Every single one of them went down EASILY. After he stopped, he looked at their bodies disappear. "Holy guacamole… Did I actually do that?! I must be awesome for doing something like that! Well, better head into town!"

And with that, Nazuchi took off toward the town. He remembered that Bestovius said that some of the civilians were possessed by some of those dark gooey guys. He wanted to make sure that he wouldn't hurt any civilians.

* * *

**Yup, we got an Angry Fuzzy. I think that's what an Angry Fuzzy would act anyways. Still it's nowhere near as good as those Rainbow Fuzzies. :P *still gets shot for not updating in a LONG time***

**Why was this updated late? Well, er... I had some Writer's Block, I was working on some of the intro for a future fic of mine, and I guess laziness. But hey! You got a chapter, so here you go!**

**...And Dementi-O's is brought to you by Lili-O's, another famous cereal! :D**


	5. Secrets Under the Town

Chapter 5: Secrets Under the Town

"Say, bros! How's about we go find ourselves some straw an' we go make ourselves some houses?" a Red Yoshi with a straw hat and a piece of straw in his mouth was playing a song on his banjo. His two buddies, a Blue and Green Yoshi, were playing their banjos as well.

"Yeah, I like the idea of that!" Green agreed. "Maybe some day we'll be able to make some houses! I dun like bein' here all day! 'Tis scary an' full of madness!"

Blue smacked him by the chin. "Whut are yeh talkin' about?! This place is always full of madness! Don't be a hillbilly an' be all 'Good Grambi, this place is so horrible! I don't wanna live here anymore!' Seriously, man! What about all of the chicks?!"

"Who cares about them? I'd rather have my life than go be a playa. …Wait, why would I say THAT?! But, don't you already have a wife, Blue?"

"Yeah, I have one. She's the hottest babe I've ever met in my life." Blue grinned. "I remember back in those days with her when I'd watch some people beat each other up while she would make me a sandwich and get me a beer."

"You're lucky you still have your wife, Blue," Red said as he looked up at the red sky. "I once had a wife. But, she left me because she joined this guild. I've never seen her ever since…"

"Nonsense, Red! You just gotta spread yer wings out, again! Just be a playa like I was back in the day! Don't be a wimp!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. But, no one can replace her. Nobody at all."

"Well, then we're gonna hafta get you back up to bein a playa again! That's what you're deemed to be, just like me!" Blue stood up as he was talking to Red while pointing his finger at him. Though, they noticed Nazuchi was standing in front of the entrance to the town, where they were at the moment.

"Uhhhhh… Were you listening to that?" Green asked.

"Well, I could say that… But I can't get through this gate. Think you can help me?" Nazuchi asked. The three Yoshis sweat dropped as they opened the gate for him.

"Thanks! That's all I needed!" Nazuchi skipped straight into the town while the three Yoshis closed the gate. They all stood in silence, but they then eventually spoke to each other.

"Now, about bein' a playa again," Blue explained. "We'll just find ya a chick an' then we'll get you two together! That's all! Same goes with you, Green. We're all gonna be playas! …How's about we go see another fight while my wife can make us some sandwiches?"

"The whole sandwich idea… It's not going to work." Green stated.

They all stood in silence.

* * *

**In the village-**

"This town doesn't seem too bad to me—oh, now I see what Bestovius was warning me about," Nazuchi realized as he eyed the town carefully. He saw a couple of dark creatures patrolling the town carefully. One took notice of Nazuchi and tried to charge at him. He gasped and pulled his Sword of Light out. Before he could strike, the dark creature immediately fled from the sword.

"Huh… Strange. That monster was afraid of my sword… Are all monsters here like this?" Nazuchi wondered as he walked around the town. The buildings were all dull and gray after it was corrupted and it was filled with so many dark monsters.

"Ah! So this is where the monsters were coming from! Well, looks like this place is a monster fest, isn't it, guys?" Toadburt said with a smug look as he and his group (that were in town) walked into town. "Just think about it! We'll simply rescue the princess – 'cause it's our job to rescue cute girls, and then we'll go celebrate by having a nice party! …And not to mention I get to marry that cutie!"

"Listen, Toadburt," Bonnie interrupted. "I understand you want to marry the princess and all… But, she's not interested in you. How many times do we need to tell you this?"

"Psh! As if! I doubt she's into that blonde freak! She only met him for like, ten minutes! Chicks dig men who wear capes, like me!"

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Nazuchi asked, butting into the conversation as he walked over to the four heroes.

Toadburt stopped grinning and looked at Nazuchi. "Oh. It's you. You're the kid that spoke with that princess, right? Look, sorry to burst your bubbles and all, but I'm going to rescue the princess and she'll be marrying ME!"

"_He still doesn't learn..._" Koopo muttered._  
_

"Hey! What did you say?!" Toadburt shouted as he glared at Koopo, who began to whistle as he looked away at the angry Toadburt.

"Listen, I know you want to marry Lilia and all… But can't we talk about this?" Nazuchi asked. "I was thinking… And maybe I could…join you guys?"

"You? Join US?!" Toadburt began to burst out in laughter. "BAH HA HA HA HA! I don't believe it! YOU?! You wanna join the four heroes?! Pbbbbbbbbbbth! Why would I let a wuss join us? You don't have anything!"

"Well, I have this," Nazuchi held up his sword. Everyone but Toadburt gaped at the beauty of the sword.

"What's with you guys? It's just a sword! I doubt it's even powerful!" Toadburt pouted as he saw a Shadoo flee from the Sword of Light. "…OK, so a monster fled from it. It's not like an army will flee from it!"

An entire army of Shadoos were coming their way, but they fled from the Sword of Light.

"What the heck?! Is this for REAL?! That's seriously fake!"

"So… Can I join you guys?" Nazuchi asked.

"_**NO! **_I'll NEVER let you join us! We're supposed to be the 'four' heroes! Not the 'five' heroes! Geez! What do I have to do to get rid of you?" Toadburt grumbled. However, an idea suddenly struck him. "All right! Listen, Blondie! I got a little deal for you! If you can defeat me in a fight, I'll admit that you're better for Princess Lilia! If you lose, on the other hand… You'll still be a wuss. Got it?"

"Ummmmmm… OK?" Nazuchi shrugged as he noticed Toadburt put away his sword. "Why're you putting your weapon away, out of curiosity?"

"It's 'cause we're fighting hand-to-hand!"

"Oh, brother…" sighed Goombi.

"All right, whatever you say, weirdo," Nazuchi put his sword away and walked over to Toadburt.

"All right, get ready, kid! You're going to wish you've never picked a fight with me!" Toadburt punched Nazuchi, but it barely did anything. He struck Toadburt a little harder, but it didn't really hurt that much.

"Ow!" Toadburt rubbed his cheek softly as his eyes began to water. Like a big baby, he began to cry loudly. The three other heroes began to snicker while Nazuchi looked a bit confused.

"OK, seriously? You cry because I punched you? Geez…" Nazuchi rolled his eyes at the crying Toadburt. "I never knew for someone two years older than me, you would be a big crybaby…"

"Ooh!"

"Burned!"

"Oh… Oh yeah? Well…uh…you fight like a cow!" Toadburt countered horribly. Nazuchi looked at his leather gloves and he rolled his eyes at the annoying Toad.

"Yeah, great comeback there, Burt," Nazuchi replied sarcastically. "If anyone's good at making comebacks, it would have to be you, definitely."

"Yeah, I sure am great at comebacks!" Toadburt grinned, flexing his "muscles" at Nazuchi. "Everyone knows that I am indeed hot. Don't you guys all agree with me?"

Goombi groaned and stepped up to Nazuchi. "Listen, kid… Your master has been looking for you, just to let you know. But, out of curiosity… How in the world did you end up here?"

Nazuchi looked at the old Goomba. "Well, it's kind of a long story… You see, that king thought that I took her daughter back to my house, when, in actuality, I didn't take her. She told me she was up above the sky after I woke up near a lake! But, I personally blame that clown! …Or jester or whatever the heck he is!"

"That's a bit interesting… But did his knights even look for the princess?" Koopo wondered as he raised an eyebrow.

"No way. They didn't even LOOK for her! I feel like I have to face palm at that! Grrrrrrr! But, listen… Do you guys think you can help me find this Grass Tablet? A wizard named Merlon told me I needed to find eight of them if I'm going to get to where Lilia is. It would be nice to get some help anyway, so could you guys lend me a hand? You ARE the Four Heroes, so you would do that, right?"

"Heck no!" Toadburt retorted. "Didn't I tell you that I said no? If I say no, then I say _**NO!**_"

"Well, there are a lot of monsters here," Bonnie mentioned. "And having help wouldn't be that bad of an idea..."

"Where are they anyway? I need to take care of them." Nazuchi stated as he raised his Sword of Light up.

"Oh, you don't want to do that, my friend," the Koopa shook his head. "Those are innocent villagers you'd be destroying, and that's not what we want. Listen, if it means a lot to you, we'll at LEAST help you return light to this village. That is the only thing that will work."

"What the heck, Koopo? We're not helping HIM!" Toadburt growled until Bonnie smacked him in the face.

"So, would you rather let this whole plunge into darkness or would you rather help it?" Bonnie asked.

"Hey! Watch the face, Bonnie!" he retorted while rubbing his cheek. "Ya can't be slapping me like that every time! All I want to do is marry that chick, but if I have to do this, then fine. I'll do your stupid little thing."

He looked over at Nazuchi. "I'm watching you, kid! You may have that sword, but everyone knows that I have the CAPE!"

"Actually, you don't have any weapons," Koopo snickered.

"…Shut up."

"Both of you settle down," Goombi snapped, silencing the Toad and Koopa. "Now, then… We shall accompany you for now until we get rid of all the darkness around. Understood?"

"Yeah, I understand, but what about the Grass Tablet?" Nazuchi asked. "Do you even KNOW about it?"

"Ah, the Land Tablet… Those are what you need to save each land, is that so? Well, if I'm correct, there should be one over by the castle up ahead from this town. Unfortunately, I don't think you'll be getting over there with those dark monsters blocking the gate."

Goombi eyed the two dark monsters with the yellow glowing eyes standing by the gate. They had no weapons, but those claws looked a bit dangerous. They looked too strong for Nazuchi to fight, though.

"You're kidding me, right? THOSE things are guarding the gate?" Nazuchi gawked. "They don't have any weapons! This must be some sort of joke..."

"I wouldn't fight them if I were you…" warned Bonnie. "They're incredible agile and those claws are probably going to rip your hair out…if you want to keep your hair, that is."

"My hair? Yeah… My hair is awesome…"

"Then you better not fight those. The only way we can get rid of them is at that well over there." Bonnie noted as she looked over at the well.

"Might as well take a look at it," Nazuchi smiled as he walked over to the well. "Hey! There's no water in here! What the heck?"

"Oh, yeah… Apparently all of the water was drained out by those monsters…" Koopo trailed. "But hey! At least we can go down the well! That's a plus, isn't it?"

Nazuchi was the first one to climb down to the bottom of the well. He noticed a dark fish flapping around and also a cracked wall that appeared to be weak.

"I say we eat fish tonight!" Toadburt announced, kicking the fish to the wall.

"Well, looks like we can't have it thanks to you kicking it..." Koopo grumbled.

"Looks like I can't have a big sword like you! Oh, wait! I don't need a sword 'cause I got my cape!"

"And…how do you attack enemies?" Nazuchi questioned as he pulled a bomb out and placed it down by the weak wall. He gestured everyone to take cover as the bomb blew up the wall.

"How do I attack? Why, I cape them! That's what!" Toadburt smirked, only to receive a bunch of face palms from the group.

"You can't 'cape' someone," Nazuchi said as he stabbed a Shadoo in the head, destroying it thanks to the light. "However, you _can_ do what I just did to that monster."

"Do you see anything ahead?" Goombi asked.

"Ummmmm… Let's see… All I see is a tunnel leading up to a room with a couple of coffins. Weird… Why are coffins in a well?"

Nazuchi walked through the tunnel, but he was soon ambushed by a couple of small, dark monsters with yellow eyes. They jumped on his hat, but they were destroyed when Bonnie struck them with a light spell.

"Be careful, Nazuchi…" Bonnie warned. "These monsters tend to appear right in your face."

"What? That stinks…" the blonde-haired boy made his way over to the coffins, holding his Sword of Light in front of him to avoid being attacked by the monsters. Plus, it would scare them away as well.

"Well, what do we have here?" Toadburt looked at all of the coffins. On the corners of the room were some spider webs. One corner had some sort of dark mummy lying on the ground. It didn't appear to move.

"Ummmmmmm… Why's there a mummy here?" Nazuchi asked as his eyes widened in fear at the dark mummy.

"Oh, relax, you big baby! That thing's dead!" Toadburt scoffed as he blew the dust away from the coffin.

"AGGH! You got the dust in my eyes!" Koopo cried.

"Well that sucks for you," the Toad opened the coffin, only to have his eyes widen in fear at…

"Dude, what's with your facial expression?" Nazuchi asked.

"I don't believe it…" Toadburt gaped. "They… They… They died…with a ripe fruit?! How is that even POSSIBLE?! A delicious fruit…still in a coffin?! Has anyone even eaten it yet?"

Nazuchi grabbed the apple from the coffin and took a bite from it. "Mmmmmm! This thing isn't bad at all! It really has a nice taste to it!"

"Really? Lemme taste it!" Toadburt tried to grab the apple, but Nazuchi pushed him away from the apple. "What the heck?! Why won't you let me take a bite of that delicious apple?!"

"'Cause I took a bite from it, idiot. You want me to give you a bomb instead? …Or even put a knife in the apple? Yeah, that would be painful, and I'm certainly NOT going to do that. Ever."

Nazuchi took one more bite from the apple just to torture Toadburt.

"Come oooooooooooon! Why can't I just have ooooooooooone bite? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaase?" Toadburt begged, getting on his knees. "Come on! Be a pal and gimme the apple!"

"And what are you going to give me in return? Nothing?"

"I'll give you something! How about I go running around the town naked? Will that make you happy?"

"No way! Don't do that! You'll embarrass yourself…like you usually do!" Nazuchi frowned, but little did he know that the mummy over by the corner was slowly getting up.

"Blondie! Watch out!" Koopo rushed toward the mummy that rose from the ground and killed it with one slash from his sword. "Whew… That was a close one…"

"D-Did that mummy just get up?!"

"Yeah… That thing was about to grab you. Good thing I took care of that thing before it could… Well, I don't know exactly what it was going to do! …But whatever it was going to do, it probably wasn't going to be good."

"Well, at least it's dead," Nazuchi scanned the area for anything important. All he noticed was a small crack over by one coffin. "Ah! There we go! There's something to blow up!"

He pulled a bomb out and tossed it straight at the wall, blowing it up and making a hole lead into another freaky room. They could see some small amounts of water on the ground, and not to mention a large, flying skull patrolling the room.

"Flying skulls? You don't see those every day…" Koopo frowned.

"I'm pretty sure I can fight it," Nazuchi assured gripped his sword and charged, but was soon pulled back by Bonnie.

"No, Blondie. You're going to get yourself killed! I think it's best for you to follow us through here. You may be the Chosen One, but I don't think a thirteen year old could even fight that thing with a sword."

"Really? Then what should we do then?"

"I say we avoid the thing for right now," Bonnie suggested as she used her magic to make all five of them invisible. "I'll make us invisible so we don't have to worry about that thing seeing us. It won't hurt us either, so we don't need to worry about getting hurt either."

"I say we take the left," Toadburt suggested in a bold, but not-so-great voice.

Everyone else shrugged and followed Toadburt to the left hallway. The only thing that they found was a small pool of water that led to a door up ahead. They decided to go back to that later and continue on through the hallway.

Once they made another left in the hallway, they saw the flying skull coming toward them. But, since they were invisible, there was no way it was gonna get them.

"Man… I don't know about you guys, but this place does feel a bit freaky…" Nazuchi trailed.

"Scared? Are you too…chicken?" Toadburt began to make chicken sounds until he was smacked by Bonnie.

"Stop it, Toadburt!" she snapped. "We may be invisible to our enemies, but our voices certainly _aren't_! So be quiet, or at least whisper!"

"Shhhhh!" Goombi shushed them both as she noticed some writing on the wall. There was a door near them, but it was blocked by a large, caged door. Across from it was another caged door, but with some sort of crystal-like switch.

"I think we need to hit that to get that door open," said Koopo, pointing at the switch and the door.

"I don't think there's a way to hit them," Bonnie noticed. "It's like you need some sort of ranged weapon to hit it. I don't think my magic is going to be able to get to that either."

"What about that door we saw before? You know, over by that small body of water?" Nazuchi pondered.

"Let's not listen to that kid, all right? I don't think that's even a good idea!" Toadburt opposed. "I say we keep on movin' until we find some sort of weapon that can open the door!"

"You're getting close to having me blow you up, you know…"

"Let's just follow Blondie, all right? We still haven't checked that door yet." Koopo suggested, following the blonde boy back to the door.

* * *

**Back by the door-**

"I think that this is still a bad idea," Toadburt frowned.

"Oh, shut up. This is the only way we can go anyway." Nazuchi jumped into the water first. It wasn't deep, so he simply swam across over to the door. Toadburt followed him through as well, although he got his hair wet.

"Man! Why do we have to go through this place anyway? It's not even that cool!" the Toad hero frowned as he looked at himself. "Now I probably have to go shirtless around here! …But that makes it cool for the ladies!"

"Do whatever you want," Koopo said as he helped Goombi across the water while Bonnie simply floated over. Once they were all together, Nazuchi opened the door into a small little room with a little hole that looked like someone could crawl through it.

"I don't think we need to be invisible anymore, so I take off the invisibility," Bonnie declared as she used her magic to make everyone visible again, but it only led to having a dark spider to block the hole.

"You just HAD to do that, Bonnie," Toadburt groaned.

"Shut up. I got this!" Nazuchi drew his sword and tried to slash at it. It did very little damage, since he struck the front part of the spider.

"Hold on a moment," Goombi pulled out a Tattle Log and turned a couple of pages to find out what this thing was. "That's a Dark Spider. The front part of it is rather…tough to break through. The only way you can take that thing out is if you attack the other side of its body. That's where it's all soft."

"You mean like this?" Nazuchi stabbed the Dark Spider as soon as it turned around, making it get enveloped in light energy and explode. "Yeah… I think that's how you do it!"

"Yeah, you did it right," she nodded.

"Why are there so many spider enemies? I'm seeing A LOT of 'em! First I fight some sort of Spider Queen, then I find a spider in here. When are we NOT going to see spiders?!"

"Just shut up and go through the hole, Blondie," Toadburt grumbled.

"Fine. I'll do that." Nazuchi frowned as he started to crawl through the hole. Luckily, he was small enough to fit through, unlike a certain Toad who couldn't go through because of his cap.

"Aw, man! Why can't I go through this thing?!"

"Maybe because you're wearing that cap," Koopo answered.

"Nah, it couldn't be that. It's probably because… No, I don't have a big head. And I'm certainly NOT fat! I bet I could try to fit through here!" Toadburt attempted to fit through, but his cap was what was in the way.

"Just take that thing off and you could probably get through," suggested Goombi.

"Heck no! I'm keepin' this thing on! I don't want to show off my awesome hair anyway!"

"You're bald."

"HEY! Don't let him hear you guys!" Toadburt soon noticed that Bonnie already took his cap off, revealing his bald head. "Ack! What did you do to me?! Now everyone can see my bald head!"

"Calm down, you fool," Bonnie snapped. "We're in a well. There's nobody except for us that can see you without your cap on. It's not even a big deal anyway. So what if you're bald? Things like that happen."

Toadburt made a face at Bonnie before crawling through the hole. He noticed another door up ahead, where Nazuchi was waiting for the group. Once he caught sight of Toadburt, he felt like he was going to laugh.

"You're seriously bald?" Nazuchi snickered.

"Shut up, kid. I don't like goin' around when I'm bald." Toadburt pouted, waiting for the others to crawl through. Bonnie simply phased through the wall to give him back his cap, which he immediately put back on.

"THANK you for getting this thing back for me!" he sighed in relief, almost falling over on the door. It ended up opening by itself, revealing a small, cave-like room with a pile of Dull Bones in the center.

"Oh, boy… Don't tell me we're in a room full of dead people." Nazuchi gulped as he stepped in. The door slammed shut from behind. Koopo attempted to open it, but to no luck.

"Looks like we're trapped in this place," he groaned.

"Urrghhh… Who dares enter this place…" one Dull Bones rose up from the corner, pulling a piece of its arm off and attempting to throw it at Nazuchi.

"What the… OOF!" the arm struck Nazuchi in the side of his face, leaving a red bruise on his face. "What did that thing just do?"

"It's a Dull Bones. They like to throw pieces of itself at you, apparently." Goombi informed. "Oh, and you can't kill them unless you use fire against it."

"But I don't have any fire!"

"The Sword of Light doesn't just use light energy, you know… It has many other elemental abilities, such as fire, ice, electricity, name them. So if you use a fire slash, you should be able to take these guys out."

"Ah! That sounds pretty cool!" Nazuchi swung his sword, making the light on it change to flames. "All right, Dull Bones! You wanna fight? Well come and get it, you weird…little thing!"

He rushed straight at the Dull Bones and used a fire slash on it, knocking it back and destroying them instantly. Unfortunately, there were still other Dull Bones that needed to be defeated.

"HA!" Koopo slashed at a couple of Dull Bones using his large sword, making all of their body parts fly all over the place (they're just bones, mind you). "That should take care of them for a little bit."

Unfortunately, little did he know that the Dull Bones' parts could come back together and make them rise from the ground. "Uh oh… Bonnie! A little help here?!"

"I'm on it," Bonnie twirled her staff around until she fired a fire blast at the Dull Bones, destroying them within the huge flaming wall. "Well, that takes care of that."

Before they could react, a chest appeared in the middle of the room. "I swear, I've seen something like this before… I'm not quite sure WHERE, but I know I've seen this from somewhere…" Nazuchi pondered.

"I suppose you could open it," Koopo suggested.

"OK, I'll do that," he smiled as he kicked the chest open with his leather boot. He reached into it to find a bow and a quiver filled with magical arrows. Heck, the bow was magical too!

"What the…" Nazuchi pulled the quiver and the magical bow out. "What the heck is this thing?"

"It's the Magic Bow!" Goombi gaped. "How could something like THAT be hidden down in a place like this? You don't usually see items like that around a place like this…"

"So it's a Bow and Arrow with magic powers, is that correct?"

"Yes. I think you should take them, considering that you don't necessarily have a far-ranged weapon. Maybe those arrows could be used to trigger that switch too! We need to go back there!"

"Whatever you say, old lady," Nazuchi shrugged as he put the quiver on his back and followed the four heroes back to the switch.

* * *

**By the switch-**

"Wait… We're not invisible! That flying skull could be here any time soon!" Nazuchi gaped.

"Then we might have to face it," Toadburt stated, getting into a fighting stance. "Oh… I realized that I don't have any weapons."

"That's because you SPENT all of our money on something you LIKE!" Bonnie growled. "We could've spent that on something that's USEFUL! Not a freakin' cape or a badge that has no effect on the user!"

The flying skull was coming their way, and it certainly was going to attack them. Toadburt, being the idiot that he was, stepped in front of the whole group and got in his fighting stance.

"All right, skull! Now you're going to have to face my wrath!" Toadburt shouted, making a kung fu sound. Meanwhile, Nazuchi was getting an ice arrow prepared because it could probably work on the flaming skull.

"You ready for this, skull?! Take THIS! _**HWWAAAAAAAAH!**_" Toadburt brought the palm of his hand out, expecting to fire some sort of energy blast at the flying skull. But what happened instead was that it got struck by an ice arrow, freezing it and destroying it as soon as it fell to the ground.

After the destruction of the flying skull, Toadburt gaped and looked at his own hands. "Holy moley… Did I seriously DO that?!" he turned to the group, smirking. "See? I DO have what it takes to take down an enormous enemy! Could YOU do that, Blondie?! Oh, noooooo! 'Cause I'm better!"

"But I… Oh, forget it." Nazuchi groaned and aimed a light arrow at the switch sealed in the little cage. "Good thing Lighten taught me how to use one of these things, or else I wouldn't have a clue on what I would be doing right now."

"Thank goodness you can, or else we would've been in trouble by now," Bonnie sighed.

"Nah, you shouldn't have to worry about that, Bonnie!" Toadburt assured as he flexed his "muscles". "All of the ladies are goin' to love me after I tell 'em how I beat that flying skull!"

"Are you purposely trying to be a cocky jerk, Toadburt?" Nazuchi asked as he shot straight at the switch, making the cage blocking the door open. He found another hallway, but he saw a ladder leading up to another door.

"Hold on a minute… I see something hanging from the ceiling." Koopo looked up the ceiling to see some kind of dark creature waiting for any intruders to set foot. "I think your bow and arrow might come in handy."

"And I will use it then!" Nazuchi smirked as he aimed a light arrow at the creature. The light pierced through the creature and knocked it to the ground. The young boy then finished it off by slashing it with light energy before climbing the ladder. "I never knew fighting things could be this fun!"

"Well don't get your hopes up on fighting, kid," Koopo said. "A true warrior doesn't like war. They do it to protect their people and the world."

"Oh… I never knew that. Honestly, I don't like killing things. The reason why I was trained to use a sword was because my parents thought that when I grew older, I would need to protect myself from harm."

"Most parents do that with their kids," Bonnie pointed out. "They wanted me to train under sorcery so I could learn to protect myself."

"Interesting… So we all were sent to learn to be a fighter to protect ourselves, is that true?"

"Toadburt and Goombi weren't. Toadburt was just raised by a bunch of rich snobs and Goombi had a really good education. That's how she knows so many things and why Toadburt acts so cocky and jerkish."

"HEY! I'm AWESOME!" Toadburt yelled.

"Your yelling isn't going to get us anywhere…" trailed Nazuchi as he kicked the door open into a larger room with four pillars. The center of the room had a pedestal surrounded by dark mist. The pillars, on the other hand, looked like they were about to break off.

"Ah! We're in the correct room!" Goombi smiled. "This is the room that we need to be in in order to get rid of the darkness that was spread around the town! You just need to use light against that orb on the pedestal and the whole town should be back to normal!"

"That sounds nice!" Nazuchi pulled out a light arrow and aimed straight at the dark orb.

Little did he know that a dark being wearing purple armor and a helmet with a horizontal visor carrying a crossbow was hiding behind one of the pillars...

"Come on, kid… Do whatever you want to free this town! I'll be waiting for you to fire the arrow…" the armored being murmured to himself, getting his crossbow ready.

"All right, this should do it!" Nazuchi fired a light arrow straight at the orb, but he noticed that another arrow struck his arrow, knocking them both over by the wall to the right.

"Huh? What just happened?!" Koopo gawked.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid I can't let you do that," the dark being in purple armor revealed himself from behind the pillar. He walked over to the four heroes and Nazuchi and aimed his crossbow at them.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Nazuchi asked.

"My name's Yorishi. I am a bounty hunter who works for the queen! Sorry, but she gave me orders to take out a serious threat! And what do I see here? The ones she wanted eliminated!"

"Pbbbbbbth! You don't scare me!" Toadburt scoffed as he got in a fighting stance. "I've got all the moves I need right here! HWAAAAAAH!"

Nazuchi groaned as fired a light arrow at Yorishi. The arrow seemingly acted like some sort of laser, piercing right through the armored bounty hunter, knocking him over by the dark orb.

"Urk! You little…!" Yorishi charged straight at Toadburt and knocked him to the wall with a powerful kick. "You should learn better not to shoot me with a light arrow. I HATE those things!"

While Yorishi was distracted, Koopo charged at him with his large sword, slashing at him with one strike. Yorishi pulled out his own dark blade and blocked the large sword easily.

"Don't think a large sword like that is going to take me down! I am more skilled than you think!" Yorishi kicked Koopo in the face and then bashed him in the head with his helmet, sending him straight into his shell.

"This should be a lot easier now!" Yorishi kicked Koopo's shell straight at Bonnie, but with her invisibility, Koopo's shell ended up phasing through her. She then cast a fire spell at him afterward, though he simply deflected it with his sword.

"What?! His sword can deflect magic abilities?!" Bonnie gaped.

"Heh heh heh! That's right!" Yorishi aimed his crossbow at Bonnie and struck her with a dark magical laser arrow that knocked her over by the corner. That only left Goombi to fight.

"Let me see what he's like…" Goombi pulled her Tattle Log out and looked for Yorishi. "This is Yorishi. He's a bounty hunter that works for the Shadow Queen. He's… Wow. He's a bit strong for us!"

"While it may be wrong to hurt an old person, I couldn't care less," Yorishi aimed his crossbow at Goombi, until a light arrow hit his hand, causing him to release his crossbow.

"Leave her be!" Nazuchi roared, aiming another light arrow at Yorishi.

"I almost forgot about you!" Yorishi looked at him for a little bit. "Your blonde hair makes me think of that princess we have captive up in the sky..."

"WHAT?! You _know_ where she is?! Tell me now!"

"I don't really need to spare the details. He's only in the Shadow King's Castle, where the Shadow King lies. His wife, the Shadow Queen, is my boss, and the one who destroyed a town called Tagel!"

"Tagel?! No… That whole place is destroyed?!"

"Heh heh heh! Of course it is! It's now the Shadow Queen's! There's nothing you can do to stop us! We'll soon be taking over every single land in this world. And then, we'll be unstoppable!"

"Not if I can help it!" Nazuchi rushed straight at Yorishi, attempting to swing at him, but he blocked his attack with his sword.

"The Sword of Light?! But how do you hold such a thing?! Unless you're…the Chosen One?" Yorishi gasped.

"Yeah, Merlon told me I'm the Chosen One!" Nazuchi smirked, trying to push him back. "You're not going to stop me from achieving my goals either!"

Nazuchi tried to swing at him, but Yorishi was faster, knocking him back to the wall with a kick and then striking him with his sword, leaving him a bit wounded.

"For the 'Chosen One', you sure have a lot more to learn!" Yorishi cackled as he raised his sword. "You're such a disgrace to all chosen ones! A REAL hero would be able to defeat a powerful bounty hunter like myself! …And even a YOUNG chosen one?! I expected the chosen one to be older than thirteen!"

Before Yorishi could finish him, Goombi struck him with a Headbonk, interrupting him from finishing Nazuchi.

"Ack! I'm going to…!" Yorishi put his sword away and grabbed the old Goomba. "You're going to regret doing that, you little hag!"

He was about to squeeze her to death until he realized something. "Hold on a minute… Nah. You guys aren't worth my time." Yorishi dropped Goombi and turned to Nazuchi. "You were lucky! If that hag didn't attack me first, then you would've been dead by now!"

"And where do you think you're going?" Nazuchi wheezed, gripping his left shoulder.

"I don't have time for someone such as yourself. You can bring this town back to light if you like, but that doesn't mean that this whole land is going to be free. Killing someone weaker than me isn't exactly a great achievement, so I'll let you go for now. But next time we meet, you BETTER be prepared!"

"So this means you're going to hunt me?"

"Yeah, I'll be hunting you when the time comes. For now, I'm out of here." Yorishi pressed a button on his wrist and was soon out of the room via teleportation.

"Ugh… I can't believe we lost that battle!" Toadburt whined. "I actually HIT him, but I was never able to win the fight!"

"He's too powerful for us to face," Koopo declared while putting his sword away. "Even if we've received some good training, it appears he's received _greater_ training. But we can't just sit here. We must return this town back to the way it was!"

"I'll take care of that!" Nazuchi pulled a light arrow out and fired it straight at the dark orb, piercing through the darkness and enveloping it in light energy instead.

"So… What has that done anyway?" Toadburt asked.

"Well, thanks to the light, we should be able to find out," Goombi answered. "I think those pillars could lead us to a way out of her if we blow them up."

"I've got that taken care of!" Nazuchi pulled a couple of bombs out and tossed them over by the pillars. It caused the whole ceiling to crumble (though, they stood in a safe place) and reveal an exit out.

"Hey! It looks nice outside!" Bonnie smiled as she flew out of the underground room. She noticed that all of the darkness was out of the town and that the people around were back to normal.

"Come out here, guys! It's all fine!"

Nazuchi, Toadburt, Koopo and Goombi climbed out of the underground room and back outside. The green grass was beautiful with a couple of flowers around, and even all of the Toads around the town were happy.

"I don't believe it… This place is absolutely gorgeous!" Nazuchi smiled.

"Why hello there, travelers!" a Toad greeted them, but soon noticed the hole. "Uhhh… Did you guys make that?"

"Don't worry about it, sir! We were just trying to save this town, that's all!" Toadburt assured. "Luckily, I was able to bring light back to this town with my super awesome light laser attack! You just HAD to see it!"

"Wow… You seriously did that? That's…incredible!" the Toad gaped. "We seriously have to reward you!"

"Wh-What?! But I was…"

"Oh, shut up, Blondie. It was obvious that I was the one who did it!" Toadburt grinned. "No need to worry, people! Toadburt, a.k.a., Mr. Good-looking is here to save you guys!"

"But…! But…!"

"Oh, and now that I think about it… I don't think I don't have time to get any rewards. We DO have somewhere else to go, you know… Don't we, guys?" Toadburt looked over at the others.

"Wait, can't you guys help me find the Land Tablet?" Nazuchi gaped.

"I would LIKE to, but we have to head somewhere else, unfortunately," Goombi frowned. "Toadburt wants us to find the Shadow Queen so we can get rid of her and save the world."

"Hmmmmm… I can understand that. You guys go ahead and do that. I guess I could go find that Tablet alone..."

"Well, it's over by that large castle off at the distance," Bonnie pointed to the castle up ahead. "Careful, Blondie. That place is still enveloped in darkness, so you might want to be careful of any monsters roaming around there."

"I'll do that," Nazuchi nodded. "Hopefully I get to see you guys (except for Toadburt) another time."

"I'd like to see you another time too. You're better than Toadburt, that's for sure." Koopo commented as he turned away. "I guess this is goodbye for now…"

"Yup. Well, see you guys." Nazuchi turned away from the four and made his way over to the gate, where a Koopa was guarding.

"Whoa there, kid! You can't go running through here!" the Koopa noted. "There are a couple of monsters out there that would try to kill us!"

"Well I have enough weapons with me anyway," Nazuchi pulled his bow and sword out. "See? I think I have all I need to take care of a couple of dark monsters! Plus, I need to go to that castle to save this land."

"The c-castle?! You're seriously going to go there to fight that dragon?!"

"Yeah, I guess I am..."

"Dude... You realize how DANGEROUS that is?! That thing snacks on anything it finds walking on the ground! It lives up in that castle ahead. Apparently, it's a pet of some evil witch. I REALLY wouldn't go there if I were you. You'd probably end up DEAD!"

"I'm not going to let this place tremble in darkness! If it means slaying a large dragon, then I'm going to do it! Just let me through! I have magic arrows in my possession, so that should do something too."

"Well… All right…" the Koopa sighed, stepping out of the way. "But don't say I didn't warn you. If you don't come back here, then I'll know if you're gone."

"Thank you. Now I must be off." Nazuchi smiled as he walked through the gate and towards the castle. All he knew was that he was alone once again.

But that wasn't going to stop him from moving on!

* * *

**So we're introduced to a new baddie named Yorishi. It's a combination of two Japanese words that means "Armored Knight". Yeah, me and making names that are in Japanese... Those game developers sure love to make names like those. :P**

**Anyway, I'm hope you're satisfied with this chapter, 'cause it's the longest one I've ever written so far. Will you see more like these? Well... Maybe. Since I don't have school for a couple of months, I MIGHT be able to update more frequently now. But I'm not giving any promises!**

**Anyway, next chapter: Nazuchi explores the castle that the large dragon lives in. Will he come out alive? Hopefully he does.**


	6. Into the Castle

Chapter 6: Into the Castle

"Ah, what a glorious day out here! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and even the music is beautiful! …Wait, music?" Nazuchi was interrupted with his moment when he saw two Koopas jamming to some music on a radio. "Oh… So those guys are just listening to something on the radio. That's nice… I guess."

Although he didn't wish to interrupt the two Koopas that were having their "moment" with the radio, he was thinking maybe they might have something important to say, so he hid behind a large rock and began to listen in to what they were going to say.

"Aw, man! This music is the bomb!" one of the Koopas said while bobbing his head like some kind of idiot. "C'mon, man! Bob to this with me, will ya?"

"Errrrr… All right!" the other Koopa began to bob his head to the music, but he heard a loud, stomping sound from behind. "Gulp… I hope it isn't who I think it is… It better not be…_him_."

"That's right! It's me!" the two Koopas turned around to see a large, Bob-omb creature with yellow horns and angry-looking eyes that kind of resembled a bull. Its feet were also a green color.

"Aw, man! Don't tell me it's Big Bully! The nastiest bully that walks this land!" the other Koopa gulped as he turned around. He was knocked over and forced to hide in his shell while Big Bully laughed at it.

"Poor, poor Koopa! …Not! Anyway… How about we play a little game of 'Kick the Koopas into the Rock'? That sounds like quite an entertaining game to play! …For me, that is! Heh heh heh heh!"

"Whoa… That guy's huge!" Nazuchi gaped as he felt the rock he was hiding behind starting to crack. "Aw, man! This isn't good! If this rock breaks, then I might be next on this guy's list!"

Nazuchi carefully made his way away from the rock, but alas, it didn't work. Big Bully spotted him…but instead of charging at him, he went something like this…

"Hey you! Yeah, I'm talking to you, Guy-with-blonde-hair! You think you can barge in to my territory like that?!" Big Bully asked, trying to talk tough to Nazuchi, although he didn't look that scared.

"This is your territory?" Nazuchi gawked. "Wow… I've only brought this area to light just a couple of minutes ago and you come here telling me that this is your territory. …Not really a nice introduction here."

"Oh, so you're tryin' to diss how I run this place, are ya? I'm bettin' that ya wanna have a little scuffle! Oh, I'll give ya a little scuffle all right!"

"Listen I don't have time for…"

"You. Me. At the flagpole! Three o'clock! Be there, punk!" the Big Bully growled as he glared at Nazuchi with his bull-like eyes. Even though this guy was pretty big, Nazuchi had the Sword of Light, some bombs, and his Magic Bow. There was no way this guy could beat him! …Right?

"Look, I don't WANT to fight you… I need to go to that castle that's still corrupted in darkness and get the Grass Tablet. You'd rather have this land be free of all darkness, would you?"

"Grass Tablet? Darkness? I don't know what you're talking about! You're in MY territory! And I know for a fact that there is no darkness around here!" Big Bully laughed until Nazuchi took his leather off and slapped him across the face, making him enraged.

"NOW you're asking for a fight, are ya?!" Big Bully began to charge, getting ready to attack Nazuchi. However, he pulled a bomb out and threw it right at him, knocking him back from the explosion.

"What was THAT?!"

"Oh… That? It was a bomb I threw at you." Nazuchi smirked while tossing an unlit bomb up and town. "Now would you please let me move on? I don't have time to speak to someone such as yourself…"

"NEVER! One bomb isn't going to do much to me!" Big Bully charged yet again. This time Nazuchi used his sword and fired a light beam of energy at him, knocking him back and crushing the rock that Nazuchi hid behind. The two Koopas popped their heads and gaped at the unconscious Big Bully.

"Holy schizzle… That was…incredible!" a Koopa gaped.

The other Koopa went over to Nazuchi with a pen and paper. "Hey, kid… You're a hero! Can I… Can I have your autograph?"

"Ummmmm… OK!" Nazuchi took the pen and paper and began to sign his own name. However, he decided to add another thing. He wrote, 'Nazuchi, the guy who has the strange blonde hair and yellow eyes.'

"Oh, man! It's so cool to get your autograph!" the Koopa smiled, but his expression changed at the name. "…Your name is Nazuchi? What kind of name is 'Nazuchi' anyway? It feels so…alienated from other names here!"

"Well, I'm not from here, so that's a simple explanation for you, if you actually wanted one…" Nazuchi trailed with an irritated look on his face. "Anyway… Do you know how I can reach the castle up ahead?"

"Castle?" the other Koopa squinted and saw a large castle covered in red skies. "Whoa… You actually plan on going there? Aren't you a bit…too young to be going around there? It's not a safe place."

"Uhhh… I was the one to restore light around here, so if I could do that, then I can explore the castle. I've even got a sword that can repel darkness, so I think I should be just fine."

"Errrmmm… OK, I guess we can't do much to stop you then. We'll let you through, I suppose." the two Koopas stepped out of the way and allowed Nazuchi to pass. He noticed a couple of bushes that some Goombas were hiding behind and even some Koopa Troopas with red shells and sunglasses were there as well.

"Well, time to test out my weapons on these guys," Nazuchi pulled a bomb out and threw it into the bush, causing the Goombas to be sent flying out of the bush. A Koopa got in its shell and tried to attack Nazuchi, but with a light beam from his sword, he managed to disintegrate it into smoke.

"Man! I don't know why, but this sword is pretty dang powerful! I can even shoot a beam from this thing! That makes it even better!"

Over by a tall pipe, a Piranha Plant popped out and began to spit fireballs straight at Nazuchi. He countered the fireball by using an ice arrow to freeze the Piranha Plant. The arrow looked like it was some sort of laser, from what he could see.

"Still, these Magic Arrows are REALLY nice. I can pretty much hit anything close to me or far from me. Though, while that's cool, I gotta keep going." Nazuchi jumped over the pipe and began to slash at enemies coming his way with his sword. It was until he got to a bush he got pretty tired.

"Sheesh! That was a lot of enemies to take care of!" he panted as he noticed up a hill was more darkness and red skies. But he instantly paused when he heard a loud, roaring sound. It sounded like it was near.

He gulped, but he was lucky enough to jump into the bush before the dragon landed on the grass. This dragon was a gray color, and its teeth looked quite flat compared to what you would really think of from a dragon. Its tail had a sharp spike on the end that was good for killing things in its way. Its eyes were also red, which did seem to make it look a bit…threatening.

"I suppose I should make my rest here," the dragon spoke as it began to look around the area. "Huh… It's a shame that there aren't any snacks for me to chow down on. Although, I suppose I can just go up to that bush over there and do something real quick. My stomach's starting to bother me a bit…"

_"Oh, no! Don't tell me it's going to come over here and, well, you know!" _Nazuchi gulped as he saw the dragon get closer. Turns out, the dragon was actually eating another bush right next to him. _"Oh… For a second there I thought that it was actually going after this one."_

"Ah, that's much better," the dragon finished the bush. "Sometimes I need to eat a little of that to make my stomach feel a little better. Anyway, I better get going for whatever's up ahead."

The large dragon flew into the air and took off toward the castle. Nazuchi got out of hiding and gawked at the huge dragon.

"Holy guacamole! That thing was huge!" he gasped. Heck, even some enemies that were patrolling the ground were scared of the large beast as well. It turned out that the dragon was flying right into the castle, up at the top in a large room.

"Well, then that must be where I need to go…" Nazuchi said to himself as he made his way toward the castle. "…I seriously need to stop talking to myself. It's not good for me…"

* * *

**Dark area-**

After some ways through the grasslands, Nazuchi finally made his way to the front entrance of the castle. The only problem was that the bridge was up and the water down below was quite dangerous. There was no way Nazuchi could even touch that water, or else he'd be dead.

"There's gotta be a way through here…" he pondered as he looked at his surroundings. He knew for a fact that the sky was red and the castle itself was pretty dark, but he needed to find a way across, and fast.

He looked up at the drawbridge and noticed two chains holding it together. _"Maybe if I shoot those with arrows, I'll be able to bring the drawbridge down. That's not such a bad idea!"_

Readying his bow, he aimed for the chains on the drawbridge. With a fire arrow, he melted the chains and managed to make the drawbridge come down. Two Koopatrols with shields and swords happened to notice the drawbridge come down, to their surprise.

"What the heck?! How did the drawbridge come down when we didn't bring it down?!" one Koopatrol gawked as he looked at the drawbridge. He happened to notice that the chains were broken and that they were a bit hot.

"Whoa… I think I see it!" the other Koopatrol said as he looked down at the chains. "Looks like someone broke them off! …But who in the world would do something like this?"

"Why don't you ask that kid with the blonde hair…" a Magikoopa suggested as he pointed at Nazuchi. "See that kid there? I think he's the one that's responsible for bringing this drawbridge down! Why don't we reward him for that?"

"Wha…? Oh! Good idea!" both Koopatrols drew their swords and charged at Nazuchi, who pulled a bomb out and threw it toward the Koopatrols. "_**…RETREAT!**_"

The Koopatrols turned and fled from the bomb, but it was too late for them. Once the bomb exploded, they were sent flying off the bridge and into the dark waters down below, killing them.

"I find it strange that these Koopatrols die from dark waters when they're corrupted by the darkness…" Nazuchi trailed.

Nevertheless, he began to cross the bridge, but the Magikoopa used his magic to summon two Dark Goombas to charge at him. However, when Nazuchi swung his sword, he made a beam of light energy strike the two Dark Goombas, killing them off. The Magikoopa was also disintegrated as well, which made Nazuchi a bit confused.

"It's so strange that these people disintegrate when they're struck with light… How strange…" he entered the castle and happened to notice a couple of Dry Bones lying on the ground. There were some stairs leading up to a door ahead, but there were also a couple of other doors around as well.

Pondering to himself, he decided to check the other rooms. The first door he checked apparently had nothing else but a table with a Koopatrol helmet sitting there. Apparently someone must've left it there, not that it was a huge ordeal to him.

The next room he checked had a bunch of spike traps. It didn't look safe for him. Those leather boots of his would never get past those spikes, so he knew it was best to ignore the room and check the door across from where he was at.

This one apparently had a table, but with some leftover food. There were some buffalo wings that were chewed up and even some hamburgers that were bitten in half. A large ham was there as well, and it looked like someone took a large chunk of it. It certainly was from someone with such an appetite…

"Man… I don't know if I'm going to find anything important in these rooms." Nazuchi sighed as he opened the last door. He found it to be empty, with the corner having a pile of Dry Bones sitting there. Though he was not surprised, he jumped a little when the Dry Bones rose from the ground.

"Must… Kill the living…" it moaned as it grabbed its arm and pulled it off. Apparently it wanted to kill Nazuchi (if you couldn't tell by what it was saying).

"Oh no you don't!" he slashed at it with his sword, changing to fire and destroying the Dry Bones easily. However, he got hit in the head by another Dry Bones that whacked him with its arm, but he spun his sword and killed off the other, making a treasure chest appear in the center of the room.

"…Really? I mean, do we REALLY need to rip off games here? No. Just no." Well, I guess that means that he simply went up to the chest and grabbed a Castle Key from inside…I suppose.

"OK, I guess I'll use this for a door…" Nazuchi left the room and went up to the main door up the stairs. It wasn't locked, but when he entered it, he saw a small hallway leading up to a locked door.

"Oh… So that's why I needed the key…"

He opened the door with the key and walked into a room filled with a couple of chains to the wall. In the center of the room were two Darknights that were practicing sword combat. They didn't seem to notice Nazuchi walk into the room, however.

_"OK… If I can just be completely quiet, I might be able to sneak past these guys…" _Nazuchi thought to himself as he watched them fight. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to find anything around that could help him sneak…except for a barrel.

"So, you think you can escape my ultimate stab move?" the first Darknight smirked under his helmet as their swords clashed.

"What stab?" the second Darknight's armor got pierced by the first one's sword. It didn't go into his body, but he ended up slapping his friend in the face in a "gentlemen's" way (and by that, I mean taking off a glove and slapping them with it).

"Wh-What the heck was that for?!"

"You STABBED my armor with that thing! Is that more to ask?!" While the two Darknight's began to argue, Nazuchi tried sneaking past the two knights by getting in the barrel and moving his feet. There happened to be a little hole for him to see through in case they ever look.

"Wait, was that barrel there earlier?" the first Darknight asked, pointing at the barrel.

"Yeah, it was there. Stop worrying about things."

"Well, it's just that… Wait, where'd it go now?!" the Darknight stopped when it saw that the barrel already went through the door. "Someone stole my barrel! We better go after them quick!"

* * *

**Next room-**

"Wow, I can't believe I got past those two enemies!" Nazuchi smiled as he jumped out of the barrel and brushed himself. He took his sword out and noticed some stairs to his left and another door to his right. "Hmmmmmm… Which way to go? …Meh, I'll take the stairs."

When he made his way up the stairs, the two Darknights got to the barrel. "Whew! Thank goodness my barrel didn't move! I mean, I SLEEP in that thing! And…_sniff_…it's the only thing close to me."

"Yeah, you SURE love your barrel when you can sleep in a freakin' bed…" the other Darknight face palmed as the first Darknight began to roll the barrel back, not even noticing that it was rolling over the second Darknight.

"WILL YOU SEE WHERE YOU'RE GOING ALREADY?!"

"Wow… Looks like someone got hurt." Nazuchi chuckled as he stopped at the locked door. "Aw, come on! Do they ALWAYS have to throw locked doors everywhere?! This is bull!"

He sighed and took the other door instead. Nazuchi happened to notice nothing around the room except for some bones on the ground. Well, they were more like Dull Bones. Two Koopatrols happened to notice Nazuchi's arrival.

"Halt! Who are you and why are you here?!" both Koopatrols drew their swords and shields and aimed them at Nazuchi. "You are unauthorized to be in this place! Leave or be slain!"

"Ummmmm… No way!" Nazuchi retorted as he aimed his sword at the two Koopatrols. "I came here for the Grass Tablet! There's NO way I'm going to let some scoundrels such as you guys stop me!"

"Oh, really? So you're one of the good guys? The Shadow Queen wanted us to keep the Grass Tablet safe from harm, so there's no point in just leaving you to get there! En guarde!"

Nazuchi swung his sword and fired a beam of light straight at the Koopatrols, knocking them back toward the wall and even breaking through it. A bunch of barrels and pots happened to be in that room.

"No! He's discovered our secret room! …Right! CHARGE!" the two Koopatrols charged with their swords, but Nazuchi rushed toward them and incinerated them with a couple of swings from the Sword of Light.

"Yeesh… This sword incinerates things?! That's…bad. Oh well." Nazuchi picked up the Castle Key one of them dropped and decided to take a look at the secret room. One thing for sure was that there were a bunch of barrels and pots.

He decided to spin his sword in order to break them all, but when he got to the last one, he happened to see it move a bit. So, instead of smashing it with his sword, he hit the top of the barrel with the handle of the sword, making it break. A man dressed in green happened to be hiding in the barrel.

"What the heck…?"

"Huh?! Wait a second… You…" the man began to look at Nazuchi carefully, making him feel a bit awkward.

"Uhhhh… Look, if you're a pedophile, then stay away!" Nazuchi cried as he aimed the tip of the sword at him. "I've got a sword! And I'm not afraid to use it! …Plus, I already like someone too!"

"That green hat… The sword… Those…yellow eyes! That fairy is something that Tingle was dreaming of! I don't believe it! It's actually you!"

"_**WHAT?!**_ _**TINGLE?!**_ NO NO NO NO NO NO! OUT OUT OUT! GET OUT OF THIS STORY!" Nazuchi attempted to push him out of the story, but alas, it didn't work. "You don't belong in here! We've already got enough Zelda references already!"

"Oh, Mr. Fairy! Tingle has been DYING to see you ever since the dream!" Tingle squealed. "You coming to my rescue has left me overcome with emotion!"

"I think you should understand that I'm not gay…"

"Let me thank you by sharing some thrilling Tingle news with you! If you ever discover different colored blocks, there's a hidden wall you can destroy to reveal the exact order you need to hit them! I actually was searching for that wall, but I was captured and thrown into a barrel. But you saved me!"

"No, I did NOT save you! In fact, you shouldn't be here!" Nazuchi exclaimed. _"WHY does this guy have to be here?! I NEVER liked this guy anyway! Especially what he's done before…"_

"Well then! Now that Tingle is free, Tingle must say his farewells! ...Don't follow me either!" Tingle began to do a little chance involving him going "Tingle Tingle Kooloo-limpah!"

He created a red balloon and began to fly out of the room. Nazuchi was nearly grinding his teeth at the man as he went out the window. How he knew about this guy, nobody clearly knew.

"That no-good cheapskate… Next time he tries to sell me something useless, I'm going to shove my boot right up his…" Nazuchi paused for a minute and looked straight at the computer monitor. "Errmmm… Please excuse me for that…rude statement! You see, people my age have a tendency to think of stuff like that."

_"Who's that guy talking to?" _one of the Dull Bones whispered as they watched Nazuchi.

After Nazuchi had his little "episode", he walked back into the previous room to find two Dull Bones on their feet. "Oh, crud… I completely forgot about these guys… Well that stinks."

Both Dull Bones shrugged and threw bones right in Nazuchi's face. A red mark was left on his face, but it didn't stop him from throwing a bomb at both of them. The two Dull Bones exploded, leaving only their heads, which Nazuchi finished by slashing them with fire energy.

"Heh heh heh! This is so awesome!" he grinned as he looked at the fire aura around his sword.

* * *

**Up the stairs-**

Nazuchi began to whistle as he unlocked the door to the next room. He saw another staircase that appeared to look a bit broken down. However, there was something that looked like it could fit between the gap on the stairs. Of course, there was nothing he could really do at the moment, so he walked over to the door that a Darknight was guarding. With a couple of swings, he managed to incinerate the enemy easily.

Upon walking into the next room, he saw a little pool in front of him. The water look a bit clean, but at least it wasn't dark water, or else he would be in some big trouble by now. Two Koopatrols had fishing poles as well.

"So, did ya catch something yet?"

"Naw, I didn't catch a dang thing. It kind of sucks too! I've spent a while trying to catch a fish and we're getting nothin'!"

"Do you think it's because there aren't any fish in here? I mean… I don't see a reason in being in here…" both Koopatrols looked up and saw Nazuchi entering the room. "Whoa! There's an intruder!"

They grabbed their fishing poles and tried to fight Nazuchi, but he was able to strike them down with a couple of slashes from the Sword of Light. Afterward, he looked down at the pool. He noticed a little underwater tunnel.

"Ugh… Do I REALLY need to go in that? That doesn't look like clean water. Oh well. At least my species can survive underwater…"

He took a little dip in the water and noticed it was a little deep. When he went underwater, he looked all around him. He noticed a couple of bones left on the ground, but they looked like old bones. Surely there wouldn't be any monsters in the water…right?

"All right, I just need to be careful in the water…" Nazuchi moved his feet and began to swim through the tunnel. He was quite lucky that he didn't run into anything scary. All it was was some kind of tunnel.

When he got out of the tunnel, he noticed there were two more tunnels to his left and right. When he swam to the left one, he noticed a dead end, so he took the right passage instead.

After swimming through that tunnel, he could see the surface up above, so he immediately swam up into a small room with a small little yellow block with an arrow pointing up. A chest was right beside it.

"Man! This water was dirty!" Nazuchi frowned as he took his hat off and squeezed all of the water out. "I can't believe I have to swim back through there! Talk about annoying!"

He gave the small block a little kick and felt some shaking occurring in another room, then he opened the chest to find a Castle Key and walked back over to the water. "Hopefully that block had a purpose… And let's hope the key does too."

After groaning, he swam through the tunnels again and returned to the previous room. He noticed to his right a locked door. Nazuchi decided to explore the room there, only to find nothing except for some empty chests and a mysterious-looking gray mouse wearing a black mask.

"Uhhhhh… Excuse me, but who the heck are you?" Nazuchi asked as he stepped foot in the room. The mouse was about to jump out the window with his sack, but he turned his head and noticed Nazuchi.

"Oh, crud… I've been caught red-handed! Son of a… All right, you can capture me if you want, but I'll probably be off anyway."

"I'm not one of those guys though," Nazuchi assured with a shake of his head. "In fact, I'm actually raiding this place to find some kind of Land Tablet! You know about those things?"

"Land Tablets? Well… I think I've heard of them from an ancient book I stole once. There are eight in all, and it shall open the way to a dark cave and to a portal that can take you to where you must go."

"A portal? I never knew about that… In fact, I didn't know a mouse thief would be around here! I guess I'll introduce myself, I suppose… My name's Nazuchi, the 'chosen one' by the ancient people. Some people call me 'Blondie' for my blonde hair."

"Nazuchi? Blondie…? Meh, Blondie sounds better to me. You can call me Cheezit."

"Well that sounds weird…" he trailed as he scratched the side of his head. "Well, is there any way I can reach the top of the castle?"

Cheezit jumped on the windowsill. "Well, I do suppose there is a way to get up. There's a secret block in a pool in the previous room that can help you find a larger block. Remember that room with that gap in between the stairs? Well, if you go look there, you're bound to find something."

And with that, he jumped out of the window, leaving Nazuchi to grumble to himself. "And I already did that…"

* * *

**Room with broken stairs-**

"Well, I guess he was right!" Nazuchi climbed the stairs to the wall and found another staircase to his left. He walked up those to find a door up ahead to his left. Of course, there were two Darknights guarding the door.

"Hey! Your kind aren't welcome here!" one of the Darknights roared as they both took their swords out and charged.

"Hey! No need for racism!" Nazuchi retorted as he swung his sword and struck them both with a Sword Beam, destroying them both. "Yeesh… I never knew there was so much racism here… They say MY kind isn't welcome here? Sheesh…"

Nevertheless, he entered the door up ahead and walked into another hallway. This time, there were a couple of Dull Bones lying on the ground and two Koopatrols patrolling the hallway. The door up ahead, unfortunately, happened to be locked.

"Great… Another locked door. Just what I needed…"

"What? Who just said that?" a Koopatrol whirled around and noticed Nazuchi's arrival. "Oh, geez! There's a kid in here!"

"Kid? What? I'm thirteen, you know! So I'm technically a teen!" Nazuchi gripped his sword and rushed at the Koopatrol. He simply froze the Koopatrol with a simple slash of ice energy and then shattered the enemy with a bomb. The other Koopatrol looked a bit shocked, but he held no mercy and charged.

"Now you're going to get it now!" he growled, successfully hitting Nazuchi with his sword and leaving him to hold his arm in pain. But it didn't stop the boy from kicking the Koopatrol in the stomach. The Koopatrol recoiled when he tried kicking him in the stomach again and tried slashing him once again.

"Oh, I don't think so!"

Nazuchi blocked the Koopatrol's attack and hit his head with his own, leaving him stunned. He finished off the Koopatrol by firing a flaming Sword Beam at him, burning him to a crisp. Because it extended to the end of the hallway, the Dull Bones were swallowed by the flaming Sword Beam as well.

"Wow… I took out all of the enemies here! I feel…kind of proud." he smiled as he walked over to the door to the right on the wall. There wasn't anything in the room except for a little rope hanging from the ceiling.

"For some reason… This rope looks a little suspicious. But, I think it might be my only way in unlocking that door." Nazuchi grabbed a hold of the rope and pulled it. The problem? A trapdoor opened up below him and caused him to fall.

"Heh heh heh… Excellent!" the bounty hunter, Yorishi, appeared with a strange purple cape and looked down at the trapdoor. "I've finally caught the hero right where I want him!"

_"Hey! Is that who I think it is?!"_

"That's right! It's the bounty hunter who works for the Shadow Queen himself! Yorishi!" the bounty hunter cackled as he kicked a couple of Dull Bones down the trapdoor. "You're not going anywhere now! I cannot allow you to get a hold of that Land Tablet, or else my queen would be very disappointed in me."

_"Well can you give me some food while I'm down here?"_

"Heck no! You're going to stay down there until you die!" Yorishi walked away and left the room. Little did he know that the key in his back pocket ended up dropping into the trapdoor.

* * *

**Room below-**

"Well this is just great… Now I'm stuck in this smelly prison." Nazuchi looked over by the rusty toilet, which looked rather…disgusting. "Augh! That smell smells like something my mom would sometimes make when I was younger! And I hate that smell!"

Before he could say anything else, a pile of Dull Bones landed on the ground, but they rose up and began to make their way toward Nazuchi. One took its arm off and threw it at his face.

"Oh, this is stupid…" Nazuchi slashed at the Dull Bones with some fire slashes and burnt them to a crisp. With them out of the way, he noticed a key drop. "Well… Looks like someone accidentally dropped their keys! Heh heh heh!"

Nazuchi looked up and frowned. "The only problem is… How on earth am I going to get out of this mess?"

He looked around in the prison cell for anything that could help. Some of the bone remains were still left, but there wasn't anything he could do about them. However, he DID see a switch outside of the prison.

"Hey! Maybe I can use one of the bones to get that switch pushed!" he threw a bone at the switch, which surprisingly made a ladder appear right by the trapdoor. "Well that's a coincidence. I never thought I'd see that here."

Nevertheless, Nazuchi climbed the ladder back up to the previous room he fell in and left that room as well. With the key in his hands, he walked over to the locked door at the end of the hallway and unlocked it.

"Now let's hope that the Grass Tablet isn't too far…"

He entered into the next room, which contained a small staircase leading up to upper ground. He saw another large arrowed block pointing up and also a small block that he remembered seeing back in that one room where he had to swim through those tunnels.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be anyone around here… So things should be fine. Although… This place seems very dirty." Nazuchi looked at all of the chains on the walls and even the skeletons that still remained. "Ugh… Well that's freaky."

He got onto the large block and fired a light arrow at the smaller block, making the large one move up to an upper floor and also to a little bridge. He took the door to the right into a room with a door up ahead on the ledge and even a couple of Darknights roaming around as well.

"Wow… A lot of enemies here…"

"Hey! There's someone here!" There happened to be a Koopatrol in the room as well, who got himself ready by charging straight at Nazuchi while he was in a shell, knocking him back easily.

"Oof… That hurt…"

When he got up, he gripped his sword and unleashed a Light Sword Beam upon the Darknights, destroying them instantly by the light. When the Koopatrol came toward him again, he got knocked over, but he managed to drop a bomb on his shell, blowing him up.

Now that the room was clear, he had to figure out how to get onto the ledge where the door was. There was no way he could get up there unless he was able to jump up. All he saw was a blue ! block over by the corner.

"Maybe that'll do something," Nazuchi fired a light arrow at it, which triggered four red ! blocks to appear. What was strange was that there wasn't anything around that could help him…except for a crack in the wall below the ledge.

"Hey, what's that?" Looking at the cracked wall, Nazuchi threw a bomb in front of it and caused a part of the wall to explode. There happened to be a little sign hidden for some reason. Well, more like two, actually.

"Let's look at the first one," he checked to see what the first one read.

_Those who wish to solve the puzzle of the four red blocks, hit them in the following order: 2, 4, 1, 3._

"Oh, that sounds easy!" Nazuchi read the other sign.

_Those who wish to solve the colored block puzzle, this is your chance! Hit the blocks in the following order: lime-green, white, brown, gray, black, and white again._

"Strange block colors… But, it's not going to change a difference." Nazuchi walked over to the four blocks and hit them in the order that he was told to do so by the sign. This triggered a ladder to appear over by the ledge.

"…That doesn't look safe," Nevertheless, he climbed the ladder and headed through the door into the next room. All he saw was a staircase over by his left, so he simply walked up the stairs with no problem.

But then he reached another pair of stairs that he saw to his right. He simply walked up those stairs until he reached the top, where there was a door that had a couple of locks on it to prevent anyone from getting in. There were two Darknights guarding the door as well.

"Hey, is it really necessary to have so many locks AND guards at a door?!" Nazuchi gaped.

"No words can express how stupid that was," the first Darknight commented. "You didn't stay quiet. I'm disappointed in you."

"Disappointed? Why?" the second Darknight asked in a confused manner. "Aren't we supposed to kill him?"

"Uhhhh… Obviously!"

They stood there in silence for a while…

And then there was a cough…

And someone sneezed…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

"OK! We get it! We don't need these stupid '…' things!" Nazuchi groaned as he fired a light arrow at both Darknights. Afterward, he noticed a lime-green, white, brown, gray and black block.

"Well, what do you know? Better hit them in the order that that sign told me to hit them in! …Wait, do I even remember it?"

He tried hitting them in an order that he tried to figure out, but he got it wrong. "Dang… Well, looks like I have to BACKTRACK all the way back to the sign! _That stupid door… I'm going to go to the back alley with a knife and stab it to death one day…_"

* * *

**One backtracking moment later-**

"That backtracking was MURDER!" Nazuchi cried as he made it to the top of the stairs, his feet being exhausted. "Well, at least I'm back here..."

Sighing, he hit the blocks in the correct order. This made the locks on the door pop off and allow it to be opened. What a relief!

"Finally! Took me a while to do that! Now I can finally move on!" Nazuchi grabbed a hold of the doorknob, but he felt a roar coming from the door. From that point, he knew he was close.

And surprisingly, that door ended up leading him outside onto a long, narrow bridge.

* * *

**Yay for me uploading a chapter of this story! And yay for me making fun of stuff in here and my hate for Tingle! :D *shot***

**Yeah, I said before I would be able to update more frequently... But, it turned out to be a lie. Hey, I said I wasn't making any promises, so you can't be mad! **

**OK, joking aside, the next chapter might be interesting to some of you. Why? Well, it's a boss chapter! That's right! We're finally getting to the first boss in the story! That should be a treat! ...If I manage to get the next chapter written up faster, that is. :P**

**And those colored blocks... Seems like some foreshadowing going on there...**


	7. Froodtail: Slaying the Dragon

Chapter 7: Froodtail: Slaying the Dragon

"So… I'm finally outside of the castle, huh? Well this should be interesting." Nazuchi took a couple of steps on the narrow bridge. He could see a couple of Darknights walking around. What was worse was that they also HAPPENED to be carrying ranged weapons as well. Yeah, that was a great start.

"Well, I still have my arrows!" he pulled out his ice arrows and froze some of the Darknights with them. He used a Flaming Sword Beam on them afterward to kill them off easily.

While he continued his way across the bridge, he decided to take a look at the view from this point of the castle. So far, he was pretty much at the top of the castle. He could even see the town far ahead. It was so beautiful…

But this place just had a dark sky. Plus, it was ugly around here.

"Eeeugh… I don't like this sky. This is why I want to grab that Grass Tablet. It's ugly here!"

When he reached the end of the bridge, he saw a spiral staircase that he was force to walk around. There were even some Darknights in there that he had to defeat with his sword in order to reach the top!

"Finally! I'm at the top!" Nazuchi made it to the top of the spiral staircase, where he found a jar that contained a Super Shroom. He decided to chow down on it to recover some of his strength. He also happened to notice the large castle door he was facing. There was no roof to it, which was why he could hear roaring from in there.

"Wow… Someone must be cranky…"

He gulped and slowly walked over to the door. His arm began to shake as he grabbed a hold of the handle.

_"Man__… __I__ can__'__t __believe __I__'__m __actually __doing__ this!__" _Nazuchi thought as he slowly pushed the door open. _"__I __mean, __am __I __out __of __my __MIND?__! __I__'__ve __gotta __face __a __DRAGON! __Something __that__'__s __ten __times __my __size! __It __has __the __Grass __Tablet __that __I__ need! __What __kind __of __challenge __is __this __for __a __second __tablet?__!__"_

* * *

**Inside-**

When he stepped foot in the room, he saw that the interior was huge. It was big enough to fit an entire dragon! …Which is why this place was made for a dragon. There were also a couple of bones over by the corner, which freaked him out a bit, but slowly got over it.

"What a disturbing room…"

"Who dares enter the great lair of Froodtail?!" the loud, booming voice was apparently coming from the giant dragon Nazuchi was facing. The loud roar he emitted echoed through the room and even pushed Nazuchi back a bit!

"Ummmmmm… Hi, Mr. Froodtail!" Nazuchi slowly waved to the dragon as he slowly drew the Sword of Light. "My name is Nazuchi… And, um… I'm here to kill you to save this land. I need the Grass Tablet."

Froodtail looked down at Nazuchi with his frightening red eyes. "You're here to kill me, you say? Pah! A small creature carrying a small butter knife is going to kill me! How pathetic! You don't have the guts to kill me! I'm ten times your size!"

"Well… That may be… But I carry the Sword of Light! This thing is capable of wiping MANY enemies out!" Nazuchi held the sword up high so its light could emit through the room.

"I see… So you're the chosen one… But, why a boy? You'd make a nice meal rather than a chosen one! Besides… I am hungry, so you could be a little snack! But first… I think I'll play around with you for a bit!"

"Well no one's going to eat anyone! I'm going to slay you whether you like it or NOT!" Nazuchi gripped his sword and gave Froodtail a determined look. "You're going DOWN, Froodtail!"

"Very well! It's snack time for Froodtail!" the dragon licked his lips as he tried to bite Nazuchi. However, he jumped out of the way and slashed at his face with his sword, causing him to scream

"GAH! That slash! It's so painful!"

"Well, that's what you get for trying to eat anyone in town! …If you've eaten any, that is!" Nazuchi got on top of Froodtail's head and tried to stab at him. However, he got knocked off when Froodtail's claw swatted him away.

"First things first… I need to fry up my meal so they're nice and crispy!" Froodtail unleashed his flaming breath upon Nazuchi and left him covered in soot. "Gwar har har har! Now THAT'S a smell that I like!"

"But I don't even taste good, dragon! Why not go to a bar and get something to eat there? I heard that they have some delicious food, such as, uh… Chicken, salad, chicken, fish, chicken, and even more chicken!"

"My diet consists of live people," Froodtail informed, attempting to burn him once again with his fire breath. Nazuchi swung his sword and fired a beam of light energy at him instead. Not only did it hurt him, but it made him blind.

"My eyes! I cannot see!"

"Heh heh heh!" Nazuchi jumped on top of Froodtail's head and began to slash at the top of his head, leaving some nasty scars on him. However, despite being blind, Froodtail was able to feel where Nazuchi was and tried to swat him away.

"Get off my head, meal!"

"I'm NOT your meal!" he retorted while slashing at Froodtail's back. Luckily, there was no way of him being swatted away by him while on his back, due to his short arms. He stabbed at the dragon once, but it only caused him to fly up in the room and spin around to get him off.

"Now I have you!" Froodtail dove down toward Nazuchi while he was on the ground and opened his mouth. The young boy rolled out of the way and let Froodtail's nose crash onto the hard ground.

"My nose! My beautiful, beautiful nose!"

"Serves you right," Nazuchi said before jumping out of the way from Froodtail's jaws. However, he decided to knock him over with his tail instead to leave him stunned for a couple of seconds.

What made it worse was that he held the boy down with his tail. "Now's the time for me to make a meal out of you!"

But before he could opened his jaws again, Nazuchi pulled and ice arrow out and fired it straight at his chest. Not only did this do a lot of damage, but it left him as a giant frozen popsicle as well.

"Wow… I actually froze this thing." Nazuchi blinked. "Now that's impressive."

But it wasn't long until Froodtail was unfrozen. He didn't take any more time to attack, so he simply smacked Nazuchi with his claw. He noticed his face had a large bruise.

"What's the matter? Are you getting all worn out?" Froodtail cackled as he burnt Nazuchi with his fire breath. "It's best to give up now and let me gobble you down! I think that would suit you more! Heh heh heh!"

"No way, Froodtail!" Nazuchi growled, stabbing Froodtails paw, causing him to screech in pain. "This is the beginning of my quest! I don't want to disappoint Merlon right now! And most of all, I don't want to leave the princess in captivity. I WISH to see her again!"

"Very well…" Froodtail stomped toward Nazuchi and brought his paw down on him, squishing him easily. "I suppose flattening you down wouldn't be such a bad idea. It works perfectly for a pancake!"

"Be a vegetarian instead, monster," he said as he fired a flaming Sword Beam at him and set him on fire. However, it didn't seem to do much against him. "Dang it… I don't know what else to do right now."

But when he saw Froodtail open his jaw in an attempt to eat him, he instantly pulled a bomb out.

"Eat this!" Nazuchi grinned as he threw the bomb into Froodtail's mouth. He swallowed it whole…but felt an explosion inside him.

"GAH! What kind of internal pain was that?!" Froodtail screeched as Nazuchi began to slash at his head a couple of times while he was down. This did seem bad for Froodtail, seeing that he was covered in scars and stabs.

_"How is this kid able to take me on like this?"_ the dragon thought. _"If the queen hears about my defeat from a kid, then she'll be disappointed in me."_

"Hey, Froodtail! How about YOU give up and tell me where the Grass Tablet is!" suggested Nazuchi.

"Me? Tell you where the Grass Tablet is? HA! I would never do such a thing!"

"Well, then have a little of this!" Nazuchi shot a light arrow right into his underside, causing him to be in more pain. He screeched as Nazuchi continuously slashed at him. It felt like he couldn't take any more of this either.

"You must be very stupid if you think you're going to win this fight. You're all scarred up from my attacks!" Froodtail cackled as he squished Chopper with his paw once again. He tired clawing him, but he was able to stab at his paw and cause him to screech again.

"ARGH! Stop stabbing my paw, you little…!"

"You're the one asking for it in the first place…"

"You… Just DIE already!"

Froodtail used his fire breath one again to burn Nazuchi down, but this time he saw that he was holding himself in pain, which seemed to show that he was almost ready to lose the battle.

"Excellent! This is just what I wanted to see!"

"Not so fast, Froodtail!" Nazuchi pulled out an apple he kept with him for a while and chomped down on it to heal himself for a bit. "Ahhhhhhh! Now that makes me feel a lithe better! I think I've got more energy to fight back!"

"We'll see how that turns out, blonde boy!" Froodtail grinned, flying up in the air and slamming himself down to the ground. The large earthquake made the entire room shake as well.

_"Ugh… I think I still have a chance to win this."_ Nazuchi thought as he jumped on Froodtail's head and grabbed a hold of his back. But, when he thought he wouldn't get hurt, Froodtail had an idea.

_"Perhaps I can drop him to the ground outside of this castle,"_ Froodtail thought. _"That way, the boy will surely die! It's genius!"_

He flew up in the air and flew straight to the sky. Nazuchi gulped as he hung onto him for dear life as the dragon began to spin around in order to make Nazuchi release his grip.

He did see something fall to the ground, however. It looked rather lime-green to him, so he decided to fly back to the large room…until he felt his back being stabbed once again…by the Sword of Light.

"What?! I thought you fell off of me?!" Froodtail gaped while screeching in pain.

"Oh, I just threw a bomb that I painted to make you THINK that I fell! And luckily, it happened to work!"

"You little…!" Froodtail flew to the outer rim of his room and swatted Nazuchi off. He didn't plummet to his doom, but he was able to get onto the outer rim. It wasn't even far from the floor anyway.

"Yeesh… I'm really high up…" Nazuchi gulped, looking down from the top of the castle. Froodtail, however, began to fly off into the sky and charge straight for him.

"Uh oh… He's coming for me!"

"Say your prayers, boy!" Froodtail screamed. "This should finish you off once and for all!"

Nazuchi pulled out his bow and aimed for Froodtail's underside. Surely he had to have SOME sort of weak spot there. That's the softest part of a dragon anyway! So, wouldn't there be one?

_"Wait… I see something dark in his underside… What is that?"_ he looked straight the glowing dark spot on his underside that he didn't seem to see before. But, thinking about this made Froodtail get even closer.

"It's time for me to snack!" Froodtail cackled as he opened his jaws to devour Nazuchi.

"Not this time!" Nazuchi retorted, aiming for the dark spot on his underside. "This is where it ends!"

He fired the light arrow straight at Froodtail, and, to his surprise, succeeded in striking him in the dark spot that he intended to hit.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!**_" Froodtail let out a blood-crying scream. "N-No… You… You found my weak area… But none could see that!"

"Except for the chosen one," Nazuchi smirked. "And I managed to take down an entire dragon by myself!"

"But… But…" the dragon coughed and wheezed. "My queen… I am sorry… He's too strong for me…"

Froodtail began to plummet from the castle and even created a huge hole in the floor. Was he possibly dead? Nazuchi didn't know, but when rocks came down on the hole, he knew that the dragon wasn't getting out of there.

"Finally… I did it! I managed to take down a dragon! That's…awesome!" Nazuchi smiled. "But… Where is the Grass Tablet?"

_"Thank you, chosen one… Thank you kindly."_ Nazuchi paused for a minute when he saw a spirit of a woman in many shades of blue and long, white hair fly from the hole and up to Nazuchi. She looked like she was glittering with magic, but there was no way of seeing what her face really looked like.

"Wait a second… Who are you, exactly?" Nazuchi asked.

_"My name is Merlumina,"_ she explained. _"I am the spirit that you freed from that horrid dragon! Being stuck in there was disgusting!"_

"Yeah… I guess it was… But what do you want?"

_"I discovered from you that you were the chosen one while I watched you fight the dragon. So, it seems that the lands are being taken over by the Shadow King and Queen themselves…"_

"Excuse me, but do you know anything about them?"

_"We don't know much about their background, but they were born on a strange island called Viti, and they came here and invaded one castle… It was in a town called Rosslind. The poor Queen Silvia was killed and her castle was destroyed… But her daughter was rescued by some strange brown furry creature…"_

"That must have been Lilia that was rescued…" Nazuchi realized. "Man… I can't believe she lost her mother…"

_"Not only that, but they attacked a town called Tagel as well. The king was killed there, and his castle was destroyed."_ These words made Nazuchi shocked.

"Tagel?! Destroyed?! So... I guess that bounty hunter was telling the truth... But what about Lighten? My mentor? Does that mean he's…"

_"Unfortunately, I don't know the whereabouts of him, nor do I know if he's still alive or not,"_ Merlumina said, worrying Nazuchi. _"Now, getting back to what I was saying… They attacked those two places and left them in ruins. The only way to counter them is with all of the Land Tablets. I happen to carry the Grass Tablet. Though, being trapped inside a dragon was not fun..."  
_

"So that dragon had it, but had you inside of him? That's...strange..."_  
_

Merlumina held up a tablet with green grass carved on it. _"O, chosen one! Please take this Grass Tablet to reveal the next world!"_

"I will," Nazuchi nodded.

_"Thank you very much, chosen one… I leave this in your hands now."_ When the Grass Tablet landed in Nazuchi's leather-gloved hands, a large, light aura expelled from the tablet and turned the dark sky back to its original state. Nazuchi himself was surrounded by a strange magic that let him slowly descend from the castle and back to the entrance.

"Whoa! This is intense!"

As he slowly began to descend, Merlumina closed her eyes and looked away. _"Good luck, chosen one… Please tell my great great great great great great great great great grandson that I said hello."_

_After the defeat of the monstrous dragon, Froodtail, Nazuchi acquired the second Land Tablet and restored this land back to light. However, knowing about the news of his town, he knew that things were getting a bit serious. The fate of all lands were placed under his own hands. However, with the Grass Tablet, he started to wonder where Lilia was being held captive._

* * *

**Now that was one heck of a boss fight! And that was the first boss in the story! It was a lot better than the first boss in "Chopper", that's for sure.**

**Now, some of you are probably wondering where Lilia is at the moment. Well, with this boss chapter, there's always an interlude. It usually takes place between a boss chapter and a new land that's explore (if you couldn't figure that out already). Also, we'll get to see some of the villains of this story too! ...And there just might be a chance that we could see some other characters... **

**Well, you'll see.**


	8. The Princess in the Sky

Chapter 8: The Princess in the Sky

Up in the dark sky, there happened to be a floating fortress. It was very dark and mysterious, and it didn't look like it was a friendly place. But where was this place, you ask? Well, it just so happened to be above heaven - something that no one would ever expect such an evil fortress to be at.

The interior of the fortress wasn't any better. The hallways were dark and filled with blah torches on the walls. There were even doors that were surrounded by a dark mist. It showed that this was no ordinary fortress.

"I've brought the princess that you seek, king," the jester, Dimentio bowed as he brought Princess Lilia into a throne room. Up ahead, she could see a man that looked pretty fat. He was surrounded by dark mist and had a large, black robe and a white mustache. He was also wearing a crown on his head to show that he was king. Beside him was a skinnier man, but he was wearing a gray cloak that shrouded his face in mystery. All she could see were two, purple glowing eyes. There was nothing else to him.

"Thank you, jester. You are free to leave if you wish." the king stated, making Dimentio wave goodbye as he said "Ciao!" before disappearing.

"What the… Was he with you?" Lilia gaped as she looked up at the king.

"Oh, he was simply my entertainer! I decided to release him if he brought me the princess of Tagel, which is you. Allow me to introduce myself." the king coughed as he looked at her with his white eyes. "I am the **Shadow King**, ruler of all the lands! With the help of my beautiful wife, otherwise known as the Shadow Queen, and **Yakken**. many lands have been conquered by us!"

"Yakken?"

"That would be me," introduced the cloaked person who appeared to be Yakken. "I'm the king's right-hand man. Make any bad moves and he'll make you pay."

"What do you want with me, Shadow King?"

"What do we want with you? Well, you see… Unlike your parents, you hold a special gift. A gift that can help us with our plan!" the Shadow King grinned. "You are apparently the one that holds the **Power of the Ancients**. That power could be used for good or evil purposes. And, judging by where you are, we've decided we will use your power for evil!"

"Just because you brought me here doesn't mean that I'll accept using this power to help you!" retorted Lilia. "And what are you going to do about it?"

"Oh, that's a very good question!" When she opened her pink eyes, she saw two dark beings rise from the ground and grab a hold of her arms. "H-Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Why, they're going to make sure you don't get away from here!" cackled the Shadow King. "Now tell us! Where is this power that you hold?"

"I… I don't know!" Lilia gasped. "I was never told about where the location of this mysterious power is, so if you think you're going to get what you want from me, well you can think again!"

"Hmmmmm… Is that so?" the Shadow King gestured the Shadoos to release the princess, and so they listened. "Very well. Then I suppose I shall keep you sealed in prison until further notice. We have ways in getting things from people, you know…"

"My king!"

Yorishi walked into the throne room and knelt down to the Shadow King. "I have some news that may shock you."

"What are these news? Speak them to me now!" demanded the Shadow King.

"Thank you," Yorishi got up and faced the Shadow King. "You know the Grass Tablet in the Grass Lands? Well, apparently the Shadow Queen's pet dragon, Froodtail, was slain! Not only that, but the person who slayed him grabbed the Grass Tablet as well!"

"WHAT?! There's somebody else that's out to search for the Land Tablets?! _WHO?!_"

"Well, when I encountered him, he was a lime green color with yellow eyes, a green, floppy hat, blonde hair, and leather gloves and boots. He was probably around thirteen years of age or something."

"Nazuchi!" Lilia gasped. _"So he's still alive? Good..."_

"Excuse me… But do you happen to know this person?" the Shadow King asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Great… This isn't good…"

"Heh heh heh! So not only do we have the princess in captivity, but we also know that there's someone who's trying to stop my evil plans! Thank you for helping us, princess. We appreciate that!"

"You're welcome," Lilia replied sarcastically.

"So, king… Should we throw her into her prison at the moment?" Yakken asked. "Or do you have more questions to ask her?"

"Well, we do not appear to have any other questions to ask her," the Shadow King pondered. "Very well! Minions! You may bring her to her cell…but I ask that you don't harm the girl."

"Why?" Lilia asked.

"It's because if we hurt you, we could possibly lose the power that you hold within you. It could halter our plans. Plus, I grow tired of speaking to you, so that's why I want you sent into your cell."

Lilia felt her arms being grabbed by the two Shadoos as they took her out. But it didn't stop her from looking back at the Shadow King and giving him a glare - and also she stuck her tongue out at him.

"That little… Oh, forget it. Usually some people do things like that when they don't like me… No matter. I'll let her stay in there until we finally get the power we need from her! After that, we can dispose of her."

"So, what would you like me to do with that boy?" Yorishi asked. "I will gladly dispose of him."

"Hold on a minute, I believe that the Desert Land is where the next Land Tablet is. I already have someone who's holding that tablet. He's not huge like Froodtail, but he definitely has more speed than him."

But before they could say anything else, Maquano teleported into the room, facing the king.

"So, Shadow King… You finally found the girl you needed?" Maquano asked.

"Yes, everything went according to plan," the Shadow King grinned. "We're keeping her in a cell just so she won't get out. As of right now, we no longer require your assistance."

"Good. Maybe now you don't need me to do everything for you." Maquano said, walking away from the two. Before he left, he turned his head so one of his eyes met the Shadow King. "Oh, and Shadow King..."

"Yes?"

"Maybe you should lose all of that weight the next time we meet. You're too fat for a king."

He made his exit, leaving the Shadow King steaming.

"Why that no-good rotten..." the Shadow King growled. "How dare he mock my weight?!"

"Well, perhaps he does have a point..." Yakken trailed. "When is the last time you hit the treadmill, my king?"

"I don't need your commentary, Yakken..."

"All right. I guess I might as well go." Yakken shrugged before he walked over to the exit of the throne room.

"Are you leaving the throne room already? Because if you are, I would suggest checking up on the princess. I want to make sure none of my minions are actually trying to HURT her."

"Very well. I will do as you say."

With that, Yakken had left the room.

* * *

**Lilia's cell-**

Lilia sighed as she looked around in her dark cell. There was a window for her to see the dark sky, a cold, metal bed that looked rather uncomfortable and a toilet. However, she wasn't used to being in a place like this. While she didn't enjoy being a princess at times, she was more used to living in a castle.

"Oh, man… I screwed up big time." Lilia frowned as she got some of her blonde hair out of her face. "Not only that, but I guess my parents and both kingdoms are gone… And now I'm sure I'm going to get Nazuchi killed as well."

She looked at both her hair and dress and noticed how dirty it was thanks to the horrible conditions in the prison. The door was locked up tight, so there was no way she could escape so easily.

"Princess Lilia, are you there?"

"Huh? Who's there?"

Yakken came walking into the prison room and walked over to Lilia, who gave him a glare.

"You're the Shadow King's right-hand man! What do you want with me!?"

"Relax, princess… I'm not going to harm you." Yakken assured. "The king just wants me to make sure those Shadoos aren't trying to hurt you."

"Hmph... How nice of him..." Lilia frowned.

"Yeah..." Yakken looked away from her and leaned against the wall. It was silent for a moment, and eventually one of his eyes shifted to her. "You may be surprised, but we both have something in common."

"What do you mean by that?"

"We both dislike the Shadow King."

"How could you dislike him when you're his right-hand man?"

"Listen, girl, just because I give a king respect doesn't mean that I instantly like him. If I disrespected him, he'd have my head, that's for sure. And I've known this guy for about ten years."

"Ten years?"

"Yeah. I started off as a merchant who sold wheat to some Toads, Goombas, etc. However, the Shadow King invaded our town and nearly destroyed everyone. I was only seventeen at the time, so I couldn't put up a fight against those evil minions of his."

"How'd you end up as his right-hand man then?"

"He found out I was a wheat seller and nearly took all of my wheat from me. I told him I would not let him take it, so he ended up taking me away as well. Knowing that I wasn't much interest to him, he decided to simply train me for the heck of it. Turns out I did much better than some of his minions, so he decided to make me his right-hand man. He even trusts me more than the others, which is rather surprising."

"So… You started off as a person who sells wheat to the Shadow King's right-hand man?"

"Correct."

"Why are you telling me this then?" Lilia wondered.

"Because I think I happen to know a way to sabotage his plans a bit," Yakken declared. "Now listen, princess…"

"Just call me Lilia."

"All right, fine. Listen, Lilia… I'm going to need your help in order to stop the Shadow King. Sure, you may not be able to take him on yourself, but there's always something about tampering his plans."

"Why would you want me to do it?"

"Because if the Shadow King found out I was doing this, he'd sack me. And you know, if I'm sacked, then that means I wouldn't be able to help you. I could even go down and deliver some messages to that Nazuchi person. …Or rather, 'Nazzy'! Heh heh…"

"You can actually go to him?!" Lilia gaped. "What can you tell him?"

"Maybe I can take you to him so you two could make out," Yakken joked. "…OK, even if I tried to take you out of here, the Shadow King would notice and probably put the world at a bigger risk. However, he doesn't care if I go out on my own. So, basically, if you help me get some private information on the Shadow King, I'll deliver messages personally to Nazuchi. Got it?"

"Hmmmmmmm… Well, I guess I have no other choice… But why would you help me?"

"I haven't gotten back at the king for ten years ever since that incident. And besides, we both dislike him, so if we both worked together, we could both take him down so we both win."

"All right, I guess I'll have to do something," Lilia said as she got up and looked around the room. "…Although, I don't see a way to help you."

"Look over by those piles of bones," Yakken suggested. "There's actually a secret lever that can reveal a secret passage. I guess the king was too stupid to realize that he put you in this cell!"

"Ugh… Over by the dead? That's horrible…" the princess moved the pile of bones away and discovered a lever. When she pulled on it, a secret doorway was revealed.

"Now go through there before anyone spots you! It should take you right to your destination!"

"Oh… Well that's convenient! I don't have to sneak around!"

"Yeah, now just go already," Yakken suggested. "When you come back, you can tell me whatever you want and I'll deliver that message to your boyfriend."

"We're not exactly 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' yet… Sure, we could've kissed before, but I almost felt that…that was a little too soon."

She simply left before Yakken could say anything as the secret door closed. Because he now had magic in his possession, he created a replica of Lilia in the cell as a dark monster came walking by.

"Everything's fine. You can get going now."

"What do yo- OW!" the monster was smacked by Yakken as it apologized (being of lower status to him and all) and leaving before Yakken could tell it to.

* * *

**Dark hallway-**

"I wish Yakken gave me a flashlight," Lilia groaned as she tried to see what was around her. However, she stopped when she noticed her crown was glowing. "Huh? Why's my crown glowing? Well… I suppose it'll help me through here…"

The crown was thankfully enough to help her guide her way to another lever. When she pulled on it, she was taken into a room with light that had a couple of chairs and a desk at the corner. What she noticed were the notes left on the desk.

"I think that might be something of interest," Lilia whispered as she walked over to the papers and picked them up. With that, she began to read it.

_Month 3 Day 9_

_Unfortunately, it looks like one of my wife's pets were sent into an abyss by a thirteen year old boy named Nazuchi. How someone like him could take down a dragon, I have no idea! If he's going to be finding more of those Land Tablets, then Sir Sandstorm should be ready to take him on! He's the holder of the Desert Tablet, and I entrusted it to him because he's one of my close friends. Yes… I assure that kid won't stand a chance against him!_

"So the person holding the next Land Tablet is named Sir Sandstorm…" Lilia trailed. "Now, if I took this information, I think the Shadow King would notice and go out to find them. I guess I could simply tell Yakken that the Desert Tablet is being held by Sir Sandstorm… That's not much."

She quickly left the room as she heard some footsteps getting closer. She barely made it as the secret door closed as the Shadow King came walking in.

"Hmmmmmm… Now where did I leave my diary papers?" the Shadow King wondered as he noticed them on his desk. "Ah! There they are!"

* * *

**Lilia's cell-**

"All right, I'm back," Lilia announced as she walked back into the cell. "I discovered that the Desert Tablet's being held by someone named Sir Sandstorm."

"Sir Sandstorm… I think I know about him…" Yakken trailed. "He has the ability to control the desert sands and use it against his enemies. Yeah, he's certainly a force of nature, that's for sure. Froodtail may have been huge, but Sandstorm is a boss. Literally."

"Do you think he stands a chance against him?"

"Well, unless he had some help with him, then no."

"Oh, dear… Then Nazuchi's going…to die?"

"I didn't say he was going to die. He could win, but it won't be easy. Plus, with a sandstorm, he won't be able to see much around him."

"OK… Well, maybe you can tell him that I'm being held captive by the Shadow King and that I'm all right. I don't want him to worry about me the whole time. That will slow him down."

"All right, I understand," Yakken nodded as he made his way to the exit before turning back to Lilia. "You did a good job, Lilia."

"Thanks…" Lilia trailed as Yakken left the cell room.

* * *

Since Tagel's destruction, the Shadow Queen had watched as her minions started to build a new town that was more suitable for her. So far, progression had been going well. One of the most important buildings that was being made was a large palace that she would settle in. That was the biggest focus of her brand new town, and she couldn't wait to settle there.

"So, my queen... Does this place look good to you?" Beldam asked, floating by her side.

_**"Yesss... It is looking very good****!****"**_ the Shadow Queen grinned. _**"However, I do believe that it will look much better when it is complete!"**_

"Guh-huh!" Marilyn agreed.

The Shadow Queen looked at her shadow form and pondered. _**"Hmmmmm... Well, I don't think I'll be needing to use this form for now. Perhaps it's time to turn back to my normal form..."**_

With that, a black mist started to surround her as her shadow form slowly started to disappear. In its place was human lady with pale skin and black hair. She wore a palish golden crown with purple jewels embedded in it, along with a black robe with depictions of stars that went down to her feet. As she took a couple of steps, a trail of darkness was left behind.

_**"Ahhhh... Much better!"**_ the Shadow Queen grinned, looking at her normal form. _**"It feels good to be back to normal for once!"**_

"It is great to see that you are pleased!" Beldam nodded.

_**"Yesss... And now that I feel better, I want you three to get out of my sight for now."**_

The Shadow Sirens paused for a moment and looked at the Shadow Queen. Her expression didn't appear angry, but more blank. However, Beldam was not one to defy her queen, so she gave the usual answer.

"Yes, my queen!" Beldam replied, turning to her sisters. "Let us check on the progression of this town, my lovelies!"

Nodding the three had left the Shadow Queen, who had taken a look at the palace before her that was being built. There had to be thousands of Shadoos building the place. It was insane!

"My queen..."

**_"Not now,"_** the Shadow Queen hissed. _**"I'm taking a look at this beautiful palace!"**_

"But there's a problem!"

Sighing, the queen turned around to face Yorishi. _**"Ah, Yorishi! So, have you done the deed?"**_

"Well... No."

The Shadow Queen instantly paused.

_**"No? What do you mean?"**_

"You see... I did have those four heroes, but then some other person came in and attacked me."

_**"Oh, really? And who is this person?"**_

"His name is Nazuchi, and he carries the Sword of Light," Yorishi explained. "I think he might be one of the Chosen Ones..."

_**"Chosen Ones?"**_ the Shadow Queen gawked. _**"No... I thought those were only just a myth?!"**_

"I guess not..."

The Shadow Queen grit her teeth as she grabbed a hold of the bounty hunter. _**"Listen to me NOW, Yorishi! Do not, I repeat, do NOT let these Chosen Ones succeed in getting the Land Tablets! They're going to be undoing the damage I've caused!"**_

"Y-Yes, my queen!" Yorishi stammered, unable to handle the queen's power. "In fact, I was going to go right now!"

_**"You better... Because these people are a serious threat to both the Shadow King and I..."**_

Nodding, Yorshi quickly made his exit by pressing a button on his wrist and teleporting away. The Shadow Queen looked away, clenching her fists in anger as she looked up at the dark, purple sky.

_**"Those fools..."**_ she hissed. _**"There's no way I'm going to let them stop me!"**_

* * *

**So, we now know where Lilia has been taken too and are introduced to a couple of characters as well! Considering that there was a Shadow Queen, I think it would make sense for there to be a Shadow King as well.**

**Also, considering that it was said that the Shadow Queen had an actual body, I decided to give her a normal form. After all, you find her spirit form in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door...**

**For the next part of the interlude, expect someone we've seen in one of the first two chapters to make their appearance.**


	9. Chalk the Paintbrush Wielder

Chapter 9: Chalk the Paint Wielder

"Gee, that sure was unexpected," Chalk blinked as he returned to the area he was at before the Shadow Queen appeared in the Grass Land, right by the land's exit/entrance. "Well, looks like no one's around, so I might as well…uh… Actually, I don't know what I was doing before."

Chalk looked over at the castle at the distance and then the town. "It's weird… This place was all nice and peaceful, but then the sky got red and dark monsters were everywhere. And now… It's all back to normal. And I like it!"

"Excuse me…"

"Not now, I'm trying to…" Chalk paused when he turned around and saw Lighten land in front of him. "Hey, what's with the mask?"

When Lighten saw Chalk's face, his eyes widened a bit, as if his appearance looked somewhat familiar to him.

"Yo! Are you blind or something?"

"N-No…" Lighten shook his head, despite knowing something about the kid's…appearance. "I was just flying around here in search of someone. You see, he's my apprentice and…"

"Don't care!" Chalk retorted as he walked away from Lighten, but the masked warrior wasn't going to let this stop him. He grabbed Chalk and turned him back to him. "Hey! I said I don't care! What gives?!"

"Have you seen someone with a green hat and lime-green skin?"

"No… But I have a paintbrush!"

"Well, he is blonde…"

"What's a blonde?" Chalk wondered. "Are they legendary gods or something?"

"No they're not. They're people with yellow hair. Have you seen him?"

"Eeeeeeeenope. And it's not like I care, 'cause I'm cooler than anyone else here! Plus, I think that mask looks stupid."

"Hmmmm… You're pretty rude for a kid…" Lighten muttered. "Fine. The next time you see someone like that, try to let me know if you can find me."

"Ummmmmmm… What if I don't remember?"

"Well, if you can't then that's fine… I'll just…" Lighten was cut off again as he heard another voice. One that irritated him. _"Oh, no… Not him again…"_

"So, it looks like this land is back to normal," Toadburt smirked as he and his three "friends" followed him on the dirt path. "And it was all because of my genius and awesomeness!"

"Toadburt, you didn't do anything AT ALL!" Bonnie growled. "We were walking this whole time!"

"Well, I have these…psychic powers that let me return this land back to itself."

"Sure you do…"

"If you had such a power, then why don't you use it on all the other lands?" Goombi asked. "In fact, why not do it now?"

"Errrr… To do that, I…uh…need…" Toadburt stammered. "I need to go to the bathroom."

"Yeah, good one…" Koopo groaned. "Just like the other times…"

"No, really! I have to go!"

"You just went a while ago!" Bonnie guffawed.

"It's not my fault that such a studly guy such as myself needs to go to the bathroom!" Toadburt grinned before he saw Lighten and Chalk. "…Oh! Perfect timing!"

He ran over to Lighten while sweating. "Hey! It's you again! So, listen… I need to go to the bathroom and all…"

"What about it?" Lighten asked.

"Well… Since there's nothing around here… Could I…use your mask?"

"NO! Not at all!"

"A bathroom?" Chalk gawked. "You know, now that you mention it, I kinda have to go as well…"

"At least someone knows me!"

"Yeah! I'm awesome! …And cute!"

"And he thinks like me too!" Toadburt smiled. "That's the kinda kid I like to see! We need more of you around here!"

"Toadburt, what about the bathroom?" Goombi asked.

"There's a porta potty over there," Koopo noted, pointing to a porta potty that looked a little messy. Chalk happened to be by it while holding a paintbrush in his hands. Lighten's eyes widened instantly.

_"That paintbrush… Isn't that used to create things and fight monsters with different colors? That looks like the legendary Spectral Paintbrush!" _Lighten thought. _"But… How did he get something like that?!"_

"You know, now that I mentioned it…" Toadburt began with a grin. "I don't have to go anymore."

"Uhhhh... Yeah..." Bonnie trailed, not appearing surprised. "Well, let's not waste our time here. We need to go over to the Desert Land, right?"

"Yeah. I heard there are a lot of monsters around there." Koopo nodded, readying his large sword. "We better be ready for them!"

"Yeah! Now let's get going! Let me be in front so it looks awesome."

The other three rolled their eyes as they continued down the trail, leaving only Lighten and Chalk, who looked disappointed to see that his porta potty was all for nothing.

"Awwww… That stinks! He could've used this!" Chalk pouted as he swung at the porta potty, which instantly got rid of it.

"Excuse me… But wouldn't that have to be the Spectral Paintbrush?" Lighten asked, walking over to Chalk.

"Spectral Paintbrush? I thought it was an ordinary paintbrush that I found lying around some ruins around here."

"Listen! That paintbrush is very important! It is one of the six weapons that the chosen ones wield!"

"Errrr… Yeah… I don't understand you."

"It was a sacred weapon that the Gods themselves created with unbelievable powers. There's one I know called the Sword of Light, and then there's the Spectral Paintbrush. That weapon allows you to create things and use different kinds of paint powers that can turn into elements! Like the color red… Use it, and you'll be using fire! White would be considered ice, and blue would be water."

"I don't get it, and I don't care!" Chalk declared.

"Ugh… You're impossible." Lighten face palmed. "If your one of the chosen ones, then we're doomed. Anyway, I should be going now. If you find my apprentice, Nazuchi, try to let me know. And for the sake of the world… Don't lose that paintbrush!"

Lighten flew away, with Chalk watching him go. He blinked a few times before looking at the paintbrush.

"I have no idea what that guy was talking about!"

* * *

**Castle entrance-**

With the Grass Tablet in his hands, Nazuchi couldn't help but smile as he slowly landed at the castle entrance. But he couldn't believe that he was able to defeat a large dragon on his own. There was nothing like that that was in Tagel before!

"Man! Now that was one heck of an adventure!" Nazuchi sighed. "…OK, this is only the second Land Tablet, and there are six more to get. But this did feel a bit accomplishing to me, that's for sure."

He looked around the area he was in and saw how green it was. The sky was a bright blue right by the town, and there didn't appear to be any dark monsters lurking around the grasslands. Overall, it felt excellent.

"So… Now to get out of here…"

He began to make his way through the grasslands and to the town ahead. There wasn't much around, to his dismay, but once he reached town, he saw some of the people getting back to business.

"What? No celebrations? Anything?" Nazuchi gawked. "How come no one's here to celebrate this place being back to normal?"

"What do you mean? This place has been back for a while." the gatekeeper explained. "If you mean that castle, then it's no big deal for us."

"But the dragon's gone!"

The Koopa ended up spitting his drink out upon hearing that. "Wait, you serious?! The dragon's been slain?!"

"Yup! Thanks to me!" Nazuchi smirked, holding up his glowing light sword.

"Weird… People were saying that one Toad restored this place back to normal, but you managed to slay the dragon? …Wait a second, you're that kid who said he was going to do that, right?"

"That's me!"

"Dude… We're now safe from getting gobbled down by a dragon! This is BIG news! We gotta reward you!"

"Uhhhhh… Maybe not." Nazuchi sweat dropped. "You see, I'm kind of in a hurry here… I need to get back to Land of the Ancients. I gotta get this Land Tablet back where it belongs!"

"Oh… Well that's a shame. It would've been nice if you hung around a little longer…"

"Maybe I'll come back some other time."

"Well that's nice! Anyway, good luck on your quest! …Or whatever you're doing."

Nazuchi waved goodbye to the Koopa gatekeeper and got out of town quickly before anyone could notice him. He knew he probably had to go back into the cave where he found the Angry Fuzzy and fought that spider, which he wasn't looking forward to.

* * *

**One moment later-**

After Nazuchi got himself through the cave and past Bestovius's house, he found the bridge going to the Land of Ancients up ahead. The dirt path seemed to lead straight over there, to his surprise.

"Wait… Hold on a minute…" Nazuchi looked at the dirt road and noticed it going around the cave and over to the town he was just in. "You're kidding me! I could've just taken this dirt road just to get to town?! …Well, at least I got the bombs."

With a sigh, he made his way over to a bush, which made him pause when he heard it rustling around.

"Who's there?" he asked, getting ready to take out his sword.

"Get down!" Nazuchi ended up ducking as Chalk jumped out of the bush and wore some leaves on his head. "Yeah, that's right! Stay like that!"

When Nazuchi looked up, he seemed more annoyed to find out who it was. "Oh… You're just some kid wearing some leaves on your head. How nice."

"Some kid? Heck no! I'm Chalk, and I'm going to be taking your money!" Chalk declared.

"Pbbbbbbth! Really? So you're just a bandit then? I mean, I can fight you with this!" he took out his sword and held it up high. "I mean, you're going against the Sword of Light here!"

"Oh yeah?" Chalk took out his magic paintbrush and smirked as he pointed it at him. "Well I've got something else of my own!"

"Wait, a paintbrush?"

"Yup!"

"Look, I don't have time for this. I need to get back to the Land of Ancients and get this Land Tablet back to where it belongs to save the world! You being here isn't helping!"

"Ehhhh… I don't care. I just want to steal from someone so I can be cool!"

"Stealing isn't going to make you 'cool'," Nazuchi face palmed. "And are you REALLY a bandit?"

"…No, not really," Chalk replied as he lowered his paintbrush. "I just wanted to see how you'd react, yellow hairdo person. Nice sword, by the way."

"Oh… Thanks. Now can you let me go? I'm trying to save the world here!"

"Ehhhh… Nah. I don't feel like it."

"Or are you just too lazy to do it yourself?" Nazuchi sighed. "And I guess I should say my name before you keep calling me…that name that I'd rather not say. I'm Nazuchi from Tagel."

"Nazuchi, huh? That sounds like a cool… Wait a second…" Chalk pondered for a moment, suddenly remembering something. "I can't shake the feeling that I heard that name before. And I never usually shake a feeling! What's wrong with me?!"

"What is it?"

"I don't usually care about most things, but some guy in a mask told me that if I saw someone named Nazuchi, I would have to tell him next time I saw him."

"Lighten!"

"Who?"

"My mentor! He came here?! That means... He's alive! Thank goodness."

"Wait, YOU'RE the one he was looking for?!" Chalk gaped. "Whoa!"

"Yeah… Well thanks for telling me. I gotta get going…" Nazuchi walked around Chalk and made his way over to the bridge ahead, but he felt someone tugging on his leather glove.

"Hold on a second!"

"What?" he turned around and saw Chalk behind him.

"Look, I don't have anywhere to go at the moment, so can I come to that Land of the Whatchamacallits?"

"You seriously wanna go there?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Well, I don't want to be here for a while. Plus, I like your weapon! It looks cool like my paintbrush!"

"…Well, I can't say no to an eight year old. You shouldn't be left around here on your own either."

"YES!" Chalk fist pumped as he jumped on Nazuchi's head. "Now carry me with your head to victory!"

"How about you get off my head first?"

"Nope!"

"OK, fine. I'll 'carry' you across the bridge." Nazuchi grumbled as he began to make his way across the bridge. One thing for sure was that this kid was not someone he wanted to hang out with.

* * *

**Land of the Ancients-**

When the two returned to the land, Nazuchi sighed when he saw all the houses and wizards living in them around Myrtle Town. However, he went over to the large door with the eight squares, with one of them being filled.

Merlon happened to be there, and he noticed Nazuchi's returned.

"Ah, Nazuchi! So you've returned!" Merlon greeted as he walked over to Nazuchi. "And you also got the Grass Tablet! Excellent job!"

"Yeah…" Nazuchi trailed. "Could you honestly believe that a dragon was guarding the tablet?! …Well, actually, a spirit named Merlumina was inside the dragon and was holding onto the Tablet."

"M-Merlumina?!" Merlon gaped. "She… She is an ancestor of mine! She actually helped create this town along with my other ancestors! I believe a friend of mine, Merlee, had an ancestor that helped create this town."

"Merlee? Who is she?"

"She's a fortune teller that can can see the future and tell you where your destination is. Unfortunately, she is not in this town at the moment. I believe she is somewhere out in the desert. However, her location there is unknown to me so far."

"I have NO idea what you guys are talking about," Chalk said rudely. "But why do I care? Now go fetch me some food, Nazarywhatever!"

"First off, it's Nazuchi," Nazuchi corrected. "And second, why don't you get off my head and do it yourself?"

"Oh ho! Who's this now? Is this a new friend?" Merlon asked, looking at the white puffball that got off Nazuchi's head.

"The name's Chalk, old man! I do…some stuff."

"Stuff? Like what?" Nazuchi asked.

"Like…I don't know. Stuff with this paintbrush!" Chalk took out the Spectral Paintbrush, which made Merlon's eyes widen.

"I-Is that the Sp-Spectral Paintbrush?!" stammered Merlon.

"Spectral Paintbrush? What's floating this guy's boat?"

"Do you even realize what kind of paintbrush that is?"

"Not at all. I don't care in the slightest!"

"Chalk, this weapon is one of the legendary weapons that was said to be carried by the one who is chosen by the ancients to use. If you're able to use that thing, then you could possibly be a Chosen One!"

"Wait… But what about me?" Nazuchi gawked. "Am I the Chosen One?"

"Yes, you are," Merlon nodded. "But now that I recall, there are more than just one Chosen One. I don't remember all the details from the books, but there might be at least six, with each of them carrying a weapon created by the ancients."

"So… This Sword of Light and that paintbrush is…" Nazuchi paused when he noticed Chalk falling asleep. "Hey! Wake up!"

"Huh?! What?!" Chalk quickly woke up and looked around. "Hey! I was trying to sleep here!"

"Even though you shouldn't be dozing off…"

"Nazuchi, your quest to find all the Land Tablets won't be easy if you went out on your own. So, I highly recommend taking Chalk with you."

"YES!"

"NO!"

"What's the problem, Nazuchi?" Merlon wondered.

"I mean, I'm fine with going with someone…" Nazuchi began before pointing at Chalk. "But with HIM?! Come on! Why him?!"

"Because I'm awesome," Chalk replied.

"Look, it may be hard for you, but you need him. He may not look like it, but he could possibly be a strong fighter." Merlon noted.

"Can I… Can I just put this Tablet in that door?" Nazuchi groaned.

"Yes, go right ahead."

"Wait... What is that thing supposed to be?" Chalk asked.

"It's a Land Tablet," Merlon informed. "If you place it at the ancient door, a new land will be revealed leading to the next Land Tablet. Get all eight of them, and the door will open to the legendary being, Battilio."

"Battilio?"

"He can fly up to great heights, even far off the planet. With his help, you and Nazuchi can possibly save the world from destruction."

"Cool..."

"Yeah, it's cool," Nazuchi sighed as he walked over to the door and placed the Grass Tablet in the second space. This caused Myrtle Town to shake as an orange laser was fired from the door and created a bridge leading to another new land that was near the Grass Land. It, too, was covered in dark clouds.

"Excellent work, Nazuchi! You've revealed the next land! If I'm correct, that should be the Desert Land."

"Well… Looks like you gotta come with me, Chalk." Nazuchi sighed. _"And this is definitely going to be fun…"_

"Oh, yeah!" Chalk smirked as he held up his paintbrush. "We're going to kick some butt!"

**_Character: Chalk_**

**_Info: This lazy white puffball may be young, but he knows a lot of skills with the paintbrush! But, he never seems to care about its backstory or important things explained to him by other people._**

**_Items: Spectral Paintbrush - Wielded by one of the Chosen Ones, this allows one to create things such a bridges or holes in walls. The color of the paint used can also be considered an element when painting on enemies._**

"All right, Nazup! Let's go!"

"It's _Nazuchi_… And fine. Let's go."

"Hold on a moment! Don't go just yet!" a voice called out. When the three looked up, they saw Yakken land on the ground with the help of his cape. Nazuchi's eyes widened as he drew his sword.

"Who the heck are you?!"

"Settle down. I'm not here to fight." Yakken assured. "In fact, I came here to help you."

"How do we know if we should trust you?"

"This guy looks cool," Chalk commented.

"Why thank you," Yakken bowed. "Anyway, the name's Yakken. I'm the Shadow King's right-hand man. But don't just assume that I'm going to kill you guys. I actually dislike my king."

"Dislike your king?" Merlon gawked. "I don't see many right-hand men disliking their king."

"Well now you have. From what I've seen, you put in the second Land Tablet, right?"

"Yeah, we did," Nazuchi nodded.

"Good. You are probably going to be led to the next land… You see, the Desert Tablet is being held by Sir Sandstorm. He's a powerful warrior, and he's probably just as dangerous as Froodtail."

"Froodtail? Who's that?" Chalk wondered.

"And, I can clearly see you have someone here to help you. Good. You probably don't stand a chance against Sir Sandstorm alone."

"Wait, does he have some kind of weakness?"

"I don't know his weakness, but I know that your paintbrush might come in handy against him…"

"Oh… So it looks like Nazguy won't be having the fun against him!" Chalk gloated, making the blonde boy face palm.

"Why are you telling us this?" Nazuchi asked.

"I told you before, I dislike my king. After what he's done to me, I think it's only fair that he gets what's coming to him. …Oh, and if you wanna know, Princess Lilia being held by the Shadow King."

"Lilia?!"

"Yup, that's her. She wanted me to tell you that she's just fine. And just for you, I'll make sure she's fine."

"Oh… That's a relief…" Nazuchi sighed. "But I still don't trust you…"

"If you don't trust me, then maybe I won't help you or even let Lilia give you any information. I can simply be a messenger, you know! Plus, no help from me means your chances of getting her back are slim! Maybe… Maybe that Toad might get her!"

"OK! OK! Fine… I'll trust you."

"I'm glad you can agree," Yakken smirked under his hood. "Well, I suppose I should get going. If you want to say something to her, I'll deliver the message."

"Well… I guess that I really miss her?"

"Yeah, that'll be fine. So long for now, Nazuchi…and Chalk." Yakken took off with his cloak, which left Chalk confused.

"OK, I don't understand that guy… He's in some dark cloak, yet he's helping us?" Chalk gawked.

"I'm not so sure if we should trust him…" Merlon trailed. "After all, he IS working with the Shadow King."

"Well, he didn't seem like he was causing any trouble…" Nazuchi trailed. "And yeah, I'll admit, I'm not exactly at friendly terms with him yet. But, his help can really help us along the way."

"So are we going to go or what?" Chalk asked, poking Nazuchi's arms.

"Yes, I believe you two should get going," Merlon agreed. "I'll see if I can find any more information."

He began to walk off, but that's when Nazuchi remembered something. "Hey, Merlon!"

The wizard stopped and turned his head. "What is it, Nazuchi?"

"Merlumina wanted me to tell you that she said hello."

"Mmmmmmm… Well, that was very kind of her. If you see her next time, please tell her that maybe I'll see her sometime."

"OK…" Nazuchi nodded as Merlon went back into town to his house before he turned to Chalk.

"Wait… So are you trying to rescue your girlfriend or something?" Chalk wondered.

"Well… I wouldn't say she's my 'girlfriend'..."

"Wow, so you're practically doing this to get to this Lilly person? Wow… You must really care about her."

"I'm glad you actually are making some sense," Nazuchi said, despite his face turning red upon Chalk's previous sentence.

"Making sense? What's that?"

"Honestly… I don't know."

"All right, fine. Can we go to this new land. I wanna see what it looks like!" demanded Chalk.

"Yeah, we should do that," Nazuchi nodded as the two began to take off, with Chalk walking in front.

"I call shotgun!"

"Hey!"

_With the white puffball Chalk being revealed as a second Chosen One, Nazuchi was now forced to take him along the way to find the rest of the Land Tablets. Occasionally, he would hear him say stuff that irritated him or made him want to pull his hair out. But who was this Yakken person they met? While he seemed helpful, he was somewhat mysterious at the same time. Despite this, Nazuchi and Chalk made their way across the bridge and to the hot, sandy new land called the Desert Land._

* * *

**Now you'd probably expect someone like Chalk to be like Kirby, since he's pretty much his ancestor in this story (if you couldn't tell). Well... To make things different, I made Chalk a bit of a jerk, while Kirby is usually cheerful and helps people around. So he's basically the complete opposite of Kirby. Plus, it's more interesting when you think about it.**

**So, what's next? Well... You'll find out.**


	10. Walking Upon the Sands

Chapter 10: Walking Upon the Sands

Barren landscape. That was all Nazuchi could describe upon entering the new land that awaited them. The Desert Land was certainly something he was not looking forward to either, considering that the desert is hot, dry and full of sand that could easily get in your shoes. And what made matters worse was that the sky was just as red as the Grass Lands were when upon entering it.

Oh, and Chalk was with him too.

Nazuchi started to wave his hand over his face, already feeling the intense heat of the desert. He decided to see what Chalk was feeling the same way. Upon looking at him, he saw him shoot blue pain into his mouth with his Spectral Paint Brush.

"Wait… What in the world are you doing?!" Nazuchi gawked.

"I'm drinking some water here!" Chalk answered harshly. "What does it look like?"

"But… But… That's paint!"

"Yeah, I know. Apparently it turns into water after a moment. And it's unlimited! I know I'm going to be good for this place!"

"And what about me? Would you be willing to offer some to me?"

"Get your own, Nazjoe!"

Nazuchi face palmed, expecting that kind of answer from Chalk. "Well, anyway… We have to trudge through this desert to find the Desert Tablet. Try to be on the lookout for anything, OK?"

Chalk stopped shooting blue paint into his mouth and jumped on top of Nazuchi's head again. "Then giddy up, horsey!"

Knowing he wouldn't get off, he forced himself onward through the sands. He was actually thankfully he wore boots, or else going through these sands would probably be as difficult. Why Chalk didn't want to walk, he had no idea.

He inspected the large, barren wasteland for anything important. All he could see was a hill up ahead, but there probably wasn't that much there. There were a couple of rocks around, ranging to some small and large ones. They eventually ran into one large rock shaped like a circle.

"Whoa, look at that rock!" Chalk gaped, pointing at the rock.

"Yeah. I know. Spectacular, isn't it?" Nazuchi asked with sarcasm in his voice. Chalk eventually got off and sprinted over to the rock. He seemed to be gazing it at awe, which left Nazuchi confused.

"Man, look at the size of this thing! That's the biggest rock I've ever seen!" Chalk gaped.

"But that rock isn't really spectacular! It's just round!"

"Perfectly round at that! Never have I seen a rock this…perfect."

Nazuchi blinked for a moment as he walked over to Chalk. The rock was indeed perfectly round. It was gray, but when he looked at the other rocks, he noticed they were brown. Something wasn't right here…

"Hey, Chalk… Could you move away for a moment?"

Chalk listened and stepped away from the rock. Nazuchi had a bomb ready in his hands, and with the fuse lit up, he placed it in front of the rock. The two quickly took cover as the rock exploded. A large chunk landed in front of them.

"Cool… Do that again!" Chalk smiled.

Nazuchi looked at where the rock once was and discovered a hole. He stepped over to the edge and tried to take a look down, but he felt himself get pushed into the hole by Chalk, making him let out a scream. Chalk smiled with satisfaction filling his mind before he jumped in.

* * *

**Through the hole-**

Nazuchi ended up landing on his face, but for Chalk, he had a much softer landing, since Nazuchi was already lying on the floor. He let out a grunt as the gray puffball landed on top of him.

"Thanks for the soft landing, Nazubi," Chalk thanked.

"Ungh… Will you ever get my name right?" Nazuchi groaned, slowly getting himself up and wiping the dirt left on his face. "I'm already hating this place already… Plus, this place is so dark!"

He took out his sword, which lit up the area around them slightly. The dim light from above helped them a bit, but all they saw was a door up ahead. Nazuchi was a little confused, while Chalk ran over to the door and tried pushing it open. The blonde boy walked over to the door to help him push it.

Surprisingly, they found themselves in a round room with a marble floor and a five pillars circling around the center. There were at least two doors, with one up ahead and one to their right.

"Strange… Why would there be a place like this in a desert? Especially underground?" Nazuchi questioned, inspecting the area.

"It's pretty cool in here, if you know what I mean," Chalk commented.

He was right, actually. Unlike outside, where it was blazing hot, it was much cooler around here. It didn't feel dry either, which was a relief.

Unfortunately, when they took a couple of steps away from the door, bars blocked it, preventing them from escaping.

"I swear this is just like some kind of game…" Nazuchi trailed.

"I don't know and I don't care!" Chalk declared, his tongue sticking out while he held his paintbrush up. "Let's check this place out!"

The two approached the center of the room and scanned for anything important. Nazuchi was pondering at the two other doors, but then he turned to Chalk to see if he had any ideas. He ended up seeing him painting one of the pillars.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Painting, of course!" Chalk smiled, painting a picture of a horribly-drawn bat. "It's Battilio!"

"How do you know it's him?"

"Well... I guess he's supposed to be a bat." the puffball shrugged. "But isn't it a masterpiece?"

"Uhhhh… Sure, I guess."

Chalk nodded in approval as he approached the door up ahead. He tried opening it, but it didn't appear to budge. He even painted it red to set it on fire, but since it was made of stone, it didn't appear to do a thing. Instead, the two checked the door to their right to find a square-shaped room with a couple of blue and white jars.

Nazuchi approached the jars first while he had his sword ready in case if there was anyone inside. Unfortunately, Chalk ran ahead and picked up one of the jars, even if it was larger than him.

"Chalk, what are you doing?!" Nazuchi cried.

"Picking up this jar! I mean, it's bigger than me and I'm holding it up like it's nothing!"

"Well that's hardly realistic…"

He looked up at the jar Chalk was holding and noticed it slowly changing to black. Getting his bow ready, he aimed it at the jar, which was transforming into some kind of ghost. It looked like it was surrounded in a black cloak covering most of its body, including the lower part of its face and had yellow eyes. It didn't appear to have legs, considering it was now floating above Chalk. It had a small, red arm, with one of its fingers acting like some sort of glowing blade. A blue mist was also surrounding this creature.

"What're you giving me that look for?" Chalk asked, noticing Nazuchi readying his bow. "Are you going to shoot me?"

"Chalk… I need you to stand still…" suggested Nazuchi, aiming a light arrow at the enemy above him known as a Shroude. He fired the arrow like a laser and let it pierce through the Shroude's body, making it let out a screech that caught Chalk's attention.

The gray puffball looked up and saw the Shroude, so he quickly got away from it and whacked it with his paintbrush. He left white paint, which left the Shroude frozen while Nazuchi prepared another arrow.

"Hey! Look at that!" Chalk smiled. "My paint froze that thing! Awesome…"

"Yes, I know… Just get out of the way, OK?" Nazuchi suggested before he felt himself get knocked over. Apparently another Shroude made its appearance from one of the jars and struck him with its blade-like finger.

Chalk took notice of the other Shroude and whacked its face with his paintbrush before Nazuchi could get himself up and fire a light arrow at the same Shroude. He then jumped forward and hit the enemy with his sword to finish it off. Chalk was able to take care of the remaining Shroude with some red paint, allowing it to burn away and disintegrate.

"Whew… Well that was close." Nazuchi sighed. "You think there's more here?"

"I'll check," Chalk decided, smashing the rest of the jars with his paintbrush, making Nazuchi gawk. He eventually finished smashing them all and turned to his companion. "Nope! Nothing else here! …Well, except for some kind of depiction on the floor."

"Wait… What is it?"

Chalk took a moment to look down at the depiction in the center of the room. "Looks like some kind of square with a triangle inside. Don't know what that means, and I don't care! All I know is that it's drawn in green paint!"

"Hmmmm… Maybe this might be something that can help us. Try to remember that symbol, OK?"

Chalk shrugged and followed Nazuchi back into the previous room. There wasn't much else around for them except for two gooey shadow demons Nazuchi remembered encountering before in the Grass Lands.

"Great… Not these guys!"

He got an arrow ready, but one of the Shadoos extended its arm and made Nazuchi fall over on his back. Chalk decided to shoot some paint balls at the Shadoos to cover them in green paint, leaving them poisoned. While Nazuchi got up, he decided to take out a bomb instead.

"I think I might have an idea…" he muttered, rolling the bomb over to one of the pillars. It exploded, making the pillar fall over on both Shadoos. "See? I guess using the pillar to squish them worked just fine!"

Before doing anything else, Nazuchi looked back at the pillar and noticed two gooey substances slowly moving away from the pillar and forming into the same two Shadoos. He gulped as a Shadoo tried grabbing his free arm.

"A little help here, Chalk!"

"…Oh, OK," Chalk started to hit the Shadoo's arm with the bottom of his paintbrush. While it didn't appear to do much, it eventually made the enemy release its grip on Nazuchi's arm.

Sighing in relief, Nazuchi ran up to the Shadoo and brought his sword down to finish it off. The poison helped kill off the other Shadoo, which slowly began to disintegrate.

"Whew… That takes care of that." Nazuchi sighed. "So… Let's see what we can do about that sealed door…"

When the two approached the door, they noticed it looked a lot similar to the depiction on the floor in the other room. However, this door was gray…

"Hey, Chalk… You remember the color of that depiction, right?"

"I think it was green or something," Chalk shrugged. "But it's not like it's going to help us with anything!"

"Well… Maybe you can do something here? You know, change the color of this door to green?"

"…Yeah, I guess I'll do that," Chalk began to paint the door green, which triggered the door to open on its own. "YEAH! I bet we'll find something through here!"

The two walked through the doorway, but their hopes were shattered when they found a few jars. But upon further inspection, it turned out they were real, so they broke them all to find a few coins.

"You know, I always wondered why there are coins in these jars…" Nazuchi trailed. "Who would even put money in a place like this? I wouldn't say this is exactly something smart…"

Chalk collected the coins and noticed a beam of light above them slightly light up the area around them. "Wait, we came in here just to get some measly coins? Well that's dumb!"

Nazuchi shrugged and stepped into the beam of light, along with Chalk. They found themselves being lifted off the ground and slowly ascending to the surface. Nazuchi was gawking, while Chalk thought it was cool.

* * *

**Surface-**

The two were taken back outside from a hole that happened to be surrounded by a circle of small grass. Unfortunately for Nazuchi, he had to deal with the blazing hot sun, making him groan.

"Ugh… Why must deserts always be so annoying?" Nazuchi asked.

"Beats me!" Chalk smiled, dumping more blue paint into his mouth. "But I'm going to be just fine!"

Nazuchi rolled his eyes and decided to see where they were at this point. They seemed to have made their way further from the starting point of the desert, which was very nice. But even still, it was still nothing but barren wasteland – with the exception of the hill ahead.

Unsure of what else to do, Nazuchi began to run toward the hill, with Chalk following after finishing up his drink. But with the extreme heat, Nazuchi only started to slow down.

"Ugh… Chalk, is there a way to tell whether it's day or night here?" Nazuchi moaned, looking up at the red sky. "That red sky's not helping…"

"Maybe that thing can help us," Chalk noted, pointing to a figure up ahead. This caught Nazuchi's attention, and soon he was running toward the figure. It didn't appear to look like anything evil. But when they got closer, they noticed it was actually a round cap buried in the sand.

Chalk started to kick at the cap, but there was no response. He resorted to picking it up, but surprisingly, there was nobody stuck to the cap. "Uhhh… I guess no one's home?"

"That looks like a Toad's cap," Nazuchi realized, taking a look at it. "Come to think of it… Doesn't this look like something Toadburt would wear? I wonder if he lost it? …Or maybe he's…"

The blonde boy paused for a moment before dropping the cap, which began to blow away. "No… That's not a good thing to be thinking of…"

"Thinking of what?" Chalk asked.

"Errrr… It's…nothing, really. Let's go up that hill. I think we're close to it, I believe."

Once they reached the hill, their movement began to slow down, but not by much, considering that the hill wasn't too steep. But what they saw over the hill was another section of the wasteland, only this time there was an army of Shadoos patrolling. They happened to also spot someone in brown, leather armor with tan skin, a desert scarf covering his mouth and nose, brown eyes and a sombrero. He also held two swords, with one being brown and the other being orange.

"Whoa… Nice sombrero!" Chalk smiled. "I'd love to have that!"

"Shhhh! Keep your voice down!" Nazuchi whispered, pulling Chalk down by the hill's peak. "We don't want these guys to see us! Plus, there's a huge army too! We probably don't stand a chance against them!"

Chalk frowned before they turned their attention to the person with the sombrero.

"Listen up, Shadoos," he began. "The Shadow King told me some blonde kid's going to be arriving here to wreck this place up and claim the Desert Tablet."

Nazuchi's eyes widened upon seeing the tablet the person took out. _"The Desert Tablet! Wow, getting to it was much easier than I thought!"_

_**"****Sir Sandstorm, what about the storm?" **_one Shadoo asked. _**"The one you planned on causing?"**_

"…I was just getting to that," Sir Sandstorm said as he put away the tablet. "In order to stop that blonde kid, I am planning on setting up a sandstorm to not only hinder his progress, but also overwhelm him so much that he would eventually give up and leave. If that doesn't work, the sandstorm might be strong enough to do away with him."

"Yeah! A sandstorm!" Chalk cheered, making Sandstorm pause and also made Nazuchi's eyes widen.

"…Pardon me? Who just said that?"

The Shadoos all replied with a shrug, but Sandstorm was no fool. His eyes shifted over to the hill, saying, "Someone go check that hill out…"

Three Shadoos volunteered and sank into the ground. Realizing this, Nazuchi gulped, but then he gave Chalk a glare.

"What?"

"You blew our cover!" Nazuchi whispered. "Now we're screwed!"

The three Shadoos appeared in front of them, but when they got a look at them, they were left unsure.

_**"****Hey… Didn't Sir Sandstorm say there was only one person coming here?"**_

_**"Yeah. Some blonde kid. But I see a blonde kid and a puffball!"**_

_**"Did he specifically say who it was? I mean, Sir Sandstorm could've been talking about some other kid with blonde hair!"**_

_**"Hmmmmm… Should we go ask him?"**_

_**"Good idea!"**_

The three Shadoos left and returned to the rest of the army. Nazuchi sighed for a moment and quickly tried to run someplace else away from the army with Chalk.

"We just dodged a bullet there," Nazuchi realized. "For a second I thought we had to fight…"

"Dodged a bullet?" Chalk gawked, looking around him. "I see no bullet."

Nazuchi gave him a face palm. "It's a figure of speech, Chalk. You should look it up sometime."

Chalk was left confused, but he continued to follow Nazuchi anyway. Unfortunately, there were no other ways to get around the army. The only thing they noticed were two boxes hanging from the top of the hill. Nazuchi grabbed one and noticed it fit over his whole body.

"Hmmmmm… Hey, Chalk, you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Uhhhh… I'm thinking about something, Nazgu!"

Nazuchi rolled his eyes and hid under the box. Chalk was still pondering until he was told to hide in the box. They slowly began to sneak past the army and Sandstorm, who was waiting for the three Shadoos to come back.

"Did you find anything?" Sandstorm asked, seeing the three Shadoos return.

_**"****Well... We were wondering if this blonde person was with someone..."**_

"From what I recall, the Shadow King only said it was a blonde person. Did you actually see him?"

One of the Shadoos began to rub the back of its neck. _**"Errrr... Maybe?"**_

"And did you stop him?"

_**"****Well... We weren't sure what to do. So... We decided to ask you what we should've done."**_

"You should've brought him to me in the first place," Sandstorm grumbled. "Great... The Shadow King won't be pleased to know that our target has already fled."

_**"****Oh… I guess we really messed up here."**_

"Yes, you certainly did. Good job, Shadoos. …Though, I'm certain they haven't gotten far. So, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself – if you can find them, that is. The rest of you find that blonde boy and bring him to me. I don't care if he is dead or alive. The job must be done."

_**"****What about you?" **_a Shadoo from the audience asked.

"I'm going back to my hideout. That's the only place I believe is safe from a sandstorm. Although, I wouldn't be too certain on that with the dam up ahead… Just make sure they don't get there either."

With those words, Sandstorm spun around in a cyclone made of sand, and soon he was gone, leaving the Shadoos to separate and search for the two.

Seeing the Shadoos walk in the opposite direction, Nazuchi smiled and lifted the box off himself. "Phew! Well that was a relief! We were almost lucky there…"

"There were a lot of them, but we showed them!" Chalk smiled, lifting the box off himself too. "So… How do we get that thing that guy was holding?"

"The Desert Tablet? Well… I guess we have to go find him first. I know Merlon said another shaman named Merlee is here. Perhaps she can help us?"

"I don't know… I wasn't even listening!"

Nazuchi gave him a disapproving look before moving on ahead. They passed by a few cacti, but they didn't feel like trying to get the water out. But what caught them off guard a few feet ahead was a small oasis.

There was some actual green there, and also a dark crystal right by a Koopa artist. They couldn't get much of a glimpse of him, but they had a feeling he was taking care of that item.

"Hey! Look at the size of that turtle!" Chalk commented, pointing at the Koopa.

"A Koopa artist? And he's standing right by a dark orb! Why, that looks just like the one I saw in that well in the Grass Land! Maybe we can ask him a few questions, maybe?"

The two ran straight to the oasis, and upon making it to the pond, Nazuchi began to drink some of the water, while Chalk dove in and left a splash, which got on the Koopa and his painting.

"Hey! Watch where you are splashing!" the Koopa snapped, turning around. He had a short, black mustache, a black artist beret, a paintbrush and a paint pallet with many different colors. "Zis art is very important! And I cannon let you monsieurs butcher my masterpieces!"

Chalk got out of the pond and looked at the Koopa and laughed. "Look at that guy's nose! What kind of guy is he?"

"For your information, my name is Monsieur Koopartist, the greatest artist mankind has ever known, especially to the great Shadow King!"

"Shadow…King?" Nazuchi gawked before two Shadoos landed behind the two.

"Mmmmmm… So, you are zee ones looking for that Land Tablet, no?" Koopartist wondered. "Ah. I've been expecting you. Zat is why I was painting in the first place!"

One Shadoo tried to approach Chalk from behind, but his paintbrush ended up unintentionally knocking it on its back. The other noticed its comrade lying on the floor and stepped away from Nazuchi.

"Wait… So you were waiting for us this whole time?" Nazuchi questioned.

"Zat is correct. Zee Shadow King asked me to guard zis dark orb so you two don't restore zee light to zis area. We don't want any of that, no?"

Nazuchi was about to approach Koopartist, but he forgot about the pond and fell in it, resulting in Chalk and the Shadoos laughing when his head reached the surface. Annoyed, he got himself out of the water and approached the Koopa without the pond getting in his way.

"Listen, er…Koopa, do you realize what could happen with this kind of darkness in the sky?"

"Hmmmm… I find it more interesting, especially how nice it looks with zis art." Koopartist stated. "Am I sensing a challenge?"

"Oh, you can count on it!" Nazuchi smirked, readying his bow and aiming it at the dark orb. "But first…"

He shot a light arrow at the dark orb, only to have one of the Shadoos jump in and take the hit instead.

"Honh honh! Try as you wish, but my friends won't let that happen!"

"Oh! I know what to do!" Chalk announced, bashing the other Shadoo with his paintbrush. He painted it red to light it on fire and watched as it began to scurry around before disintegrating.

"Good idea, Chalk," Nauzchi smiled, firing an arrow at the last Shadoo remaining to kill it off. "See? That was too easy!"

Koopartist smirked and turned back to his artwork. He painted a Shadoo, which jumped out of the picture and landed in front of Nazuchi and the approaching Chalk and let out a snicker. Chalk could only stick his tongue out at it, while Nazuchi gawked.

The Shadoo started to jump toward them and tackled Chalk to the ground. Its right arm turned into a blade, but it stopped when Nazuchi swung his Sword of Light at the dark critter.

While it wasn't yet defeated, the Shadoo turned to Nazuchi and tried to attack him, but the blonde boy was quicker and stabbed the gooey monster in its chest, enveloping its body entirely by light before it exploded. Smiling, he turned back to Koopartist with a glare.

"Is that all you've got?" taunted Nazuchi.

Not too surprised, Koopartist looked back at his papers and painted up another monster. Two Darknights were painted and were now ready to attack. One swung its sword at Nazuchi, but he blocked it with ease. As for the other Darknight, it turned its attention to little Chalk.

Chalk raised his paintbrush and bonked the Darknight's head with the bottom of his weapon before painting it yellow, causing it to become electrocuted. To make matters worse, it was kicked into the water, which also became electrified in the process for a moment.

"Hey, Nazjoe! Look what I did!" Chalk shouted, catching Nazuchi off guard and making him get pushed near the water by the Darknight he was facing. Koopartist smirked and began to paint up something else.

Thankfully the water was no longer electrified, but it didn't stop Nazuchi from fighting back. He managed to kick the Darknight off him, but he could do nothing else when he saw it get defeated by a paintball.

"What in the…?" Nazuchi turned to Chalk, whose paintbrush was aiming in the direction the paintball fired. "Wait, how on earth did you…?"

"I don't know," Chalk shrugged. "But man in this thing awesome!"

Koopartist finished up his next painting, and before them were two Shroudes spinning their bodies like spinning saw blades. Nazuchi gulped and threw a bomb at one of them to interrupt its attack. Chalk then proceeded to paint them white to leave them frozen, and soon his red paint did the trick.

"What? Hmmmm… So I underestimated you…" Koopartist trailed.

"Wait, how the heck did you underestimate us?!" Nazuchi gawked. "I mean, you probably most likely heard about me taking down a dragon, right? You probably would've known by now, you idiot!"

"Well, I never heard of you doing zat, but if you did, congratulations. But, I am not backing down just yet, monsieurs!"

He began to paint something else, and when it came to life, it turned out to be a much larger dark monster with larger claws and muscles. It looked similar to a Shadoo, that's for sure. Since its arms were longer, it began to charge at them with all fours while roaring. The inside of its mouth appeared to be orange, just like its soul-piercing eyes.

"Honh honh honh! How do you like this?" Koopartist asked, a grin now appearing on his face. "Zis is the Shadoo Brute! It's unlike any of the enemies you might have faced before! …Unless you did."

Nazuchi and Chalk shrugged, but they barely had much time to have a discussion, because the Shadoo Brute was charging in their direction.

Seeing its mouth open, Nazuchi slipped a bomb out and threw it into its mouth when it grabbed him. Before it could squeeze him to death, it felt an explosion from inside its body, leaving it stunned for a moment.

"Hey! It's not dead!" Chalk frowned, bashing its head with his paintbrush. "Die die die!"

"Chalk! Calm down!" Nazuchi cried, making Chalk stop. "I don't know if that's going to really kill it…"

The Shadoo Brute was able to push itself up and raise its arms in order to smash them. Taking notice of this, Chalk painted a yellow circle on its chest and left it paralyzed for a moment.

"Well that was nice of you to pull off!" Nazuchi smiled, getting his bow out and firing at least two light arrows into its chest. It let out a scream of pain before Chalk began painting it many different colors.

"Have some of this!" Chalk shouted, painting the Shadoo Brute red to burn it and let the enemy disintegrate.

Koopartist couldn't help but gape. "What?! Zis was not supposed to happen! …Fine then! I shall make more!"

He turned to his paper, but Chalk got on top of his beret and pulled the paper away from him. By painting the paper red, he let it catch on fire and burn, leaving Koopartist shocked.

"Why you… You…!" the Koopa grit his teeth in anger as he began to swing his paintbrush at Chalk. "I shall make you pay!"

Chalk raised his paintbrush and blocked Koopartist's own paintbrush. "Hey, Nazuv! This guy's gone mad!"

"Yeah, I can tell…" Nazuchi sighed, rolling his eyes as he approached the dark orb. "Just…keep him busy, OK?"

"Wait, what on earth are you doing, boy?!" Koopartist exclaimed, noticing Nazuchi raise his sword. "Don't you _dare!_"

Nauzchi brought his sword down on the dark orb, eliminating any signs of darkness inside it and eradicating the red in the sky. Now the sky was blue, and the sun was a lot easier to spot. Light had been finally restored in Desert Land – at least this section anyway.

"I don't believe it… Do you realize what you've done?!"

"Yes," Nazuchi nodded. "I just restored the light back to this place. That's pretty important, you know."

"Keeping zis place dark was helpful for my art!" Koopartist barked. "It made it stand out more! And with zee sun not getting in my eyes often, it made creating art easier!"

"Well, then I guess your days of painting are over then. Sorry…"

Koopartist stopped trying to go after Chalk and decided to go after Nazuchi instead, but he didn't expect Chalk to swing his paintbrush by his feet, causing him to trip and fall into the pond.

"I wanna go now," Chalk declared. "So onward, Nazucho!"

"Aw, come on!" Nazuchi cried, following Chalk, who forged onward. "He was THIS close to getting my name!"

While the two made their way ahead, Koopartist got himself out of the pond and began to squeeze the water out of his beret. With all of his art tools now ruined by the pond, perhaps his days of painting were finally over.

* * *

**Well, here's the beginning of the desert area! ...Even though I'm not too much of a fan of deserts.**

**I can't really say much else here. This probably might be my least favorite area to write, but I think having two people makes up for it, since it makes writing chapters a little more easier when there's more than one person.**


	11. Fortune Upon a Dam

Chapter 11: Fortune Upon a Dam

With Monsieur Koopartist defeated, Nazuchi and Chalk continued their way across the desert. With light shining upon them, things were starting to look a little livelier. A couple of orange enemies covered in spikes called Pokeys were roaming around, as well as some rock enemies called Bald Clefts. They mostly ignored them, though.

"Good thing everything's light out," Nazuchi smiled, looking at the blue sky and the sun that shined down on them. "Though… The sun's pretty bright, wouldn't you say, Chalk?"

"Oh, I'm already covered," Chalk smirked, putting on shades. Nazuchi took notice and couldn't help but ask the obvious.

"…Where did you get those?"

"I made 'em myself!"

"But how did you… Oh, right. The paintbrush." Nazuchi grumbled. "Can you make me some?"

"Go get your own!"

Nazuchi frowned before turning his attention back to the direction they were moving. There was another hill coming up ahead, but it wasn't as steep-looking as the one they previously ran into.

"Duck!"

Hearing those words, Nazuchi immediately ducked and covered, hoping that a projectile would just miss him.

Instead, he heard a quack.

"…What?"

Nazuchi stood up and noticed a duck walking by while quacking. His left eye started to twitch as Chalk ran after the duck, which began to fly away.

"Chalk… That was so unnecessary…" Nazuchi said calmly, his anger slightly building up. "I thought I was in danger for a second!"

"Well it was so important that I had to tell you about the duck!" Chalk countered. "It was super important! …Ooh! I see more!"

"Wait, what?" the blonde boy noticed more ducks waddling down the small hill ahead and eventually flying off. "What are ducks doing around here? I thought they usually stay around water or something? Not a freaking desert!"

"I bet they're desert ducks!"

Nazuchi gave Chalk a strange look. "…Desert ducks?"

"Well… Yeah! It's the best answer and is probably a fact that you can't change!"

Rolling his eyes, Nazuchi made his way over to the hill and gasped when he almost fell. Standing before him was a large pit that probably went over ten miles far. There appeared to be a dam all the way at the bottom, but there didn't appear to be any water. It was just a single puddle.

Chalk even got a look, but instead of being amazed, he said, "So… I guess the ducks came from there?"

There was not much time to inspect the dam when they heard something coming from their left. Turning, a shadow monster with blades on its arms, legs and back was coming toward them while rolled up in a ball.

But Nazuchi still had an idea. It sounded like a stupid move, but he held his sword like a bat and swung it before the enemy called a Shadoo Blade could make contact with him. Sparks came from both its blades and the Sword of Light before Nazuchi was able to knock the Shadoo Blade onto the sand.

Nazuchi looked down at his sword, which was glowing orange where it made contact with the enemy's blade. It was also steaming as well. Meanwhile, the Shadoo Blade eventually pulled itself together and gave the two a glare with its glowing yellow eyes. Chalk smirked at it, while Nazuchi got in a fighting stance.

"Come on!" challenged Nazuchi, setting the Shadoo Blade off and making it leap over to them. Chalk painted a hole in the ground where the Shadoo Blade was landing, leading it to fall into the hole. "Wait, what? …Oh, don't tell me. That was you, wasn't it?"

"Yup!" Chalk declared proudly. "Aren't I awesome?"

"Yeah…" Nazuchi approached the edge of the cliff and looked down. There happened to be a ladder nearby leading down to a few sandy rocks. Perhaps this was a way down to the dam?

Putting his sword away, the blonde boy walked over to the ladder and began to carefully climb down. Looking down was a terrible option at this point. Chalk followed him down the ladder and onto the sandy rocks. They didn't appear to be in good shape, so Nazuchi suggested they be careful.

Unfortunately, the Shadoo Blade was able to tear through the wall near them, but to their relief, it ended up in midair when it lunged. After realizing where it was standing, it eventually began to plummet to its doom.

"What an idiot!" laughed Chalk.

"Indeed," agreed Nazuchi, making his way onto some climbable rocks to the left of the cliff. Climbing down lead onto some wooden platforms, which was able to hold the weight of the two. "Hmmmm… Well, this seems to be sturdy… I wonder what we'll find here?"

Chalk ignored him as he ran on ahead to the left of the platforms and found another ladder leading down to the lower level. Nazuchi followed him down the ladder, but while they climbed, they heard some voices through the wall.

"What the…" Nazuchi stopped for a moment to listen to the voices carefully. "Strange… I hear voices, but I don't know what's being said…"

"I can hear it too!" Chalk noticed. "But hey, like we care, Nazoop!"

"Well, I'm sure it might be important…"

When they climbed down the bottom of the ladder, they saw another ladder near them, but all the way to their left appeared to be a wooden door. It didn't appear to be sturdy. In fact, it easily fell off when Chalk was pulling on the knob.

"Ha! This door is so bad!" Chalk scoffed.

"Well, I guess it was old… Makes sense. Looks like it leads into a cave." Nazuchi was the first to step into the cave. Thankfully, it wasn't filled with darkness, because purple lanterns shaped like orbs were hanging from the walls. It made the cavern look gorgeous, actually.

Well, until Chalk made it out of shape by painting one of the lanterns green without Nazuchi noticing. He let out a small snicker before following Nazuchi.

Eventually they found the path fork off when there were now two ways to go. There was a sign to the left that stated "To Merlee's", while the other appeared to be too dirty to look at. Probably because of some small pebbles that left dirt on the sign. Speaking of pebbles, some were falling on the two's heads.

To stop some of the pebbles, Chalk spun his paintbrush above his head like a propeller. It looked pretty cute for someone like him, but it bothered Nazuchi more when those pebbles were hitting him now.

"Chalk! Stop it!" Nazuchi barked. "This isn't helping!"

Chalk frowned and eventually stopped. "Thank you... Let's go to the left. I remember Merlon mentioning someone named Merlee. Perhaps those voices were coming from her?"

Chalk would've said something, but Nazuchi was already heading toward the left, so he followed him through the small cavern. To their surprise, they noticed the purple getting dimmer around them with the cave getting much lighter. In fact, they stumbled on purple curtains just up ahead.

Opening the curtains left the two astounded. The walls were a light purple with depictions of yellow stars everywhere. The ground was also light purple, which included a purple rug and a blue table that looked rather out of place. On the table was a crystal ball glimmering with energy. A couple of shelves were near the corners of the room and were mostly about fortune telling.

On the other side of the table was a shaman woman garbed in a lavender cloak that covered most of her body and a hood shaped like the upper part of the sun that kept her face hidden, with the exception of her purple eyes. A yellow emblem of a sun was slightly above her hood, and a blue orb with a star embedded in it was on her cloak. She wore black gloves and brown boots as well.

But what also struck Nazuchi mostly were the people that were speaking to her.

"So you see, fortune teller, we've gotta finish our mission to save some princess so I can marry her! Her father even promised me that!"

"Toadburt, you realize that King Braze and Tagel itself were destroyed?!"

"Now now, Bonnie. Can't you see I'm talkin' here? You three are supposed to be silent, because as the leader, it is my duty to talk to the people here!"

"Except you're just an idiot," Koopo stated.

"Tagel, you say?" Merlee asked, breaking the argument between Toadburt and his "friends". The fortune teller began to wave her hands around the crystal ball as it began to glimmer with purple light. Through the crystal ball, Tagel could be seen, but not as it once was before. "Hmmmm... Yes, I see it now! The Shadow Queen had invaded Tagel and wiped it out and redesigned the town! Now darkness roars over the skies!"

No longer was Tagel a place of peace and beauty, but it now had buildings that ranged from blue and dark purple. A large palace was created in a large section of the place, and the entrance had a big, red door with seven star emblems.

"Oh my gosh..." Goombi gaped, looking at Tagel. "What has become of this place?"

"It is the work of the Shadow Queen," Merlee stated. "Where the castle once stood now has a palace. It has been deemed the Palace of Shadow."

"Oh, no!" Nazuchi cried, seeing the image through the crystal ball. The four heroes and Merlee happened to notice them, with one person in the former not being happy.

"Well well, if it isn't the guy who thinks he can be the hero of this story!" Toadburt said in an annoyed tone.

"Do I have to kick your butt again? Because I'm willing to do so."

"Well... I've gotten better since last time!"

"Both of you quiet down!" Merlee snapped, silencing the two. She was focusing her magic on the crystal ball and tried to get a glimpse of the interior of the Palace of Shadow, but the dark power from the building was too strong. "I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like my crystal ball's power can breach through this darkness..."

"Oh..." Nazuchi frowned. "Listen, I came here because of-"

"Hey, who said you could talk?" Toadburt cut in. "Were were here first, you moron."

"As much as I'd like to disagree with Toadburt here, he is right," Koopo agreed. "We came here to seek Merlee's help about these dark lands and how we can possibly stop the rulers causing this."

"...Hold on, I'm getting something!" Merlee realized, taking a glimpse through the crystal ball. A star that appeared crystal like was now seen. Seven of them, actually. "These stars... They are filled with incredible power, being able to surpass even the Shadow Queen's... Coincidentally, it was she who had created these in order to rule the world."

"Yeah, we managed to encounter her when she was about to use them, but that only caused the stars to get separated," Bonnie noted.

"Very interesting... If they are not in the Shadow Queen's grasps, then it is possible for anyone to find them and use them for great or evil purposes..."

"So you're saying we have to find these seven Crystal Stars in order to defeat the Shadow Queen? What about the Shadow King?" Goombi asked.

"Yes, I do believe with the seven stars united, you will be able to defeat the Shadow Queen. As for the Shadow King... Not even I am sure how to stop him... He is much stronger than the Shadow Queen."

"Do you know where we can find a Crystal Star?" Koopo wondered.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Merlee checked one of her shelves and took out a shimmering gray star. "This is the Diamond Star. I happened to find this just outside of this place. I believe there is another one here, but it is located in the ruins where Sir Sandstorm lingers. Getting there is no easy feat."

Toadburt snatched the Diamond Star from Merlee and put it away. "Well thanks for that, lady. We'll make sure this thing stays in perfect shape! And we'll certainly not let a stupid blonde person get a hold of 'em."

Nazuchi gave Toadburt a glare before turning back to Merlee. "Speaking of Sir Sandstorm... We were looking for him. He has a hold of something called the Land Tablet. I'm actually a good friend of Merlon's."

"Merlon? Ah, him! Our ancestors were responsible for creating Myrtle Town! Why would I ever forget him? And you also say you're looking for a Land Tablet? Hmmmm... Yes, that is very important. Collecting each one can eventually lead you to a new land, and I'm certain more Crystal Stars are located in those places."

"Wait, so we have to get tablets AND stars?!" Toadburt gaped. "What a load of bullsh-"

Koopo quickly poked his arm with his elbow to silence him.

"Well I certainly have no idea what you people are talking about!" Chalk declared proudly, painting the rug green. Merlee noticed, but she didn't bother to tell him to stop.

"Since these four and you and...whoever that gray thing is are doing the same tasks, I suggest you people work together," Merlee suggested.

"You kiddin' me?!" Toadburt gaped. "No way am I workin' with this loser! The gray kid, sure, but Blondie here ain't workin' with us! Plus, I think 'Four Heroes' sounds much better in my eyes!"

"Well I think it's a better choice," Nazuchi stated. "As much as I don't want to be around you, working together will make us stronger."

"Nope! Not doin' it! And that's final!"

"You sure are ignorant..."

"And I'm handsome! You're argument is invalid!" Toadburt declared, thinking he won the argument. "That princess from Tagel is mine, ya got that?"

Merlee seemed to perk up as she looked down at her crystal ball. She happened to see an image of Lilia through the crystal ball in her prison. "Hmmmmm... Is this the princess you mean?"

Everyone took a glimpse of the crystal ball and noticed Lilia was not looking as clean as she did in Tagel. In fact, her face, her hair and dress were all dirty. Seeing her in this condition left Nazuchi saddened.

"What have they been doing to her?" Nazuchi asked, almost looking like he was about to cry.

"Not even I know... But if you'd like, I can allow you to communicate with her through my powers. I will let a spirit of _one of you_ appear before her."

"Spirit? Awesome!" Chalk exclaimed. "I've always wanted to appear as a spirit! Then I can go into bodies and possess people and make them do stuff! You've gotta turn me into one, lady! You've GOTTA!"

"Wait, Chalk!" Nazuchi cried. "I think I would like to..."

"If you wish to be a spirit, then I shall do so," Merlee declared, using her magic on Chalk. While he wasn't technically a spirit, he was one in the prison where Lilia was in. Though, he appeared to be disappointed.

"What? Come on! This isn't what I wanted! I still look like myself!"

A spirit of Lilia happened to appear above the crystal ball. Sadly, she could not see everyone else but Chalk.

_"What the... Who are you?" _Lilia asked, her soft voice suddenly filling Nazuchi's mind. Hearing that voice again made him feel calm. Yet, he was upset now that he couldn't talk to her.

"Me? I'm Chalk! And believe me, I'm the coolest person out there!" Chalk declared. "Do you see me as a spirit?"

_"Ummmm... Yeah, but I don't understand how you-"_

"YEAH! It worked! I'm actually a spirit!" This eventually led to mostly everyone face palming. "Hey, Liliart, isn't this cool?"

_"It's __Lilia__, not Liliart. And how do you know me?"_

"'Cause some guy named Nazoup is with me right now! I remember him mentioning something about you. Boy, I wish I had some duct tape so I could shut him up about that!"

Nazuchi was a bit annoyed, while Toadburt was giving the blonde boy a smirk of satisfaction.

_"Nazoup? Don't you mean Nazuchi? You're telling me he's with you? But I don't see him…" _Lilia trailed, a little disappointment being heard in her voice.

"Yeah, I know. …Wait, I completely forgot he could hear me!" Chalk looked back at Nazuchi. "Just so you know… I didn't mean any of that stuff I said before, OK?"

Nazuchi's glare had not gone away, though.

"…Yeah, he's fine," Chalk assured, looking back at Lilia. "So… How are you?"

_"Are you and Nazzy even doing anything? In fact, why are you with him?" _Lilia asked out of curiosity.

"Pbbbbbbbth! Nazzy! …Wait, what? I'm just getting these fancy shmancy things called Land Pieces or whatever they are to save the lands 'round here. I think they'll lead us somewhere near you!"

_"Well, if he can't hear me, tell him I'll be fine here. Yakken's still trying to find something that can help sabotage the Shadow King's plans. Don't let him worry about me, OK?"_

"Oh, sure, I can do that!" Chalk assured. "...Wait, what did you say?"

The hologram of Lilia was beginning of fade away, and Merlee spoke. "My power cannot last forever, gray boy. I must conserve this power or else I cannot give fortunes."

"Tell that beauty that I'll be there for her, 'cause Mr. Hot Stuff here will get her out of there!" Toadburt assured.

"Oh, and this Toad guy here told me..." the magic soon wore off, and Lilia's hologram soon faded away, leaving Nazuchi saddened. Toadburt, on the other hand, was stomping the ground in frustration like a toddler.

"Well I don't think we got much out of that," Koopo noticed.

"Yes," agreed Goombi. "We could have gotten something important about the Shadow King! ...But, I guess some kids are too naïve to understand what's going on here."

"Well, anyway..." Toadburt began, trying his best to look cool again. "I think we better get goin'. We've got a Crystal Star to hunt! An' we're gonna make sure this blonde dork doesn't get to them before us! So, onward, heroes!"

Toadburt took off, leaving the three others to let out a groan and follow. They always wondered when Toadburt would ever learn.

"Hmmmmm... I think there was something I forgot." Merlee realized, a lightbulb appearing over her head and lighting up. "Oh, yes! Now I remember!"

"What is it?" Nazuchi asked.

Merlee checked one of her shelves and took out a map. "I should have told them about this map that will lead them to the Crystal Stars... But I guess it's too late to tell them! They're on their own!"

Chalk quickly snatched the map from the fortune teller. "Then we're taking it!"

"Hmmmm... Yes, you can go ahead. It's not like I need it anyway... Perhaps you will find them before they do, yes?"

"Maybe..." Nazuchi trailed, taking the map from Chalk. "So... How can we get to these ruins Sandstorm is in? The only thing we saw here was some dam."

"Ah, yes..." Merlee turned his attention back to the crystal ball. "My crystal ball is telling me something that's damaged the dam... It looks like it needs some fixing, but it does not tell me who is messing with it."

"Do you know where we can go?"

"Yes. Just go to the right of the cave where you first entered and you should be led to the damaged dam. If someone's causing a mess to it, then go right ahead and stop him. Fixing it will keep this area from becoming dry!"

"How will the water come back, though?"

"Well... Actually, I don't know. I'm not sure how those things work. But you gotta fix that dam, 'cause you're not going to get to Sandstorm's ruins if it's left like that. ...So do me a favor and scram, 'cause overstaying is going to cost you!"

Grimacing at the fortune teller, Nazuchi decided to leave. Chalk followed him back to where the sign was, while Merlee sighed in relief and began to relax. Having that many people in her room was quite annoying. She mumbled about how much of a pain that was, but at the same time, she was relieved to get rid of that stuff she had.

* * *

**Outside the cavern-**

Nazuchi and Chalk had finally gotten out of the cavern and were now at the bottom of the cliff. They noticed how steep it was around them and also the small crack in the center of the sand that went off for a couple of miles.

"I bet that dam's going to be far!" Chalk declared.

"Dang it..." Nazuchi muttered. "I bet this is going to take a long time to get through! And it also stinks that I never got to talk to Lilia."

"There there, Nazo," Chalk said in a motherly tone, patting his shoulder. "It's not your fault you're probably a dumb blonde and someone who whines over someone they like. It's only natural."

In response, Nazuchi only smacked the top of Chalk's head and moved on. The puffball followed him, feeling like he just accomplished an achievement of annoying his partner.

Unfortunately, they noticed a Shadoo Blade charging in their direction. Actually, it looked like the same one from before! How it managed to survive the fall, Nazuchi had no idea, but he managed to perform the same sword swing to stop it from hitting him just like before.

"How the heck is this thing still alive?!" Nazuchi gaped, knocking the enemy back. "It just doesn't learn!"

When the Shadoo Blade got up, it cast a death glare upon the two and fired a blade from its head at them. Nazuchi threw a bomb at it to send the blade flying away near the Shadoo Blade's foot. This gave Nazuchi an opportunity to roll a bomb near the enemy's feet and allow it to explode, sending it flying back.

Eventually it managed to get on its feet and roll up in a ball before charging at the two. Nazuchi readied his sword, but Chalk made a wall in front of them to make the Shadoo Blade Crash into it and leave it stunned. Chalk then proceeded to beat it on the head with his paintbrush.

"Calm down, Chalk! It's already finished! See?" Nazuchi pointed down at the Shadoo Blade, which was slowly disintegrating. "No need to go berserk and bang that paintbrush on its head!"

"Well... I thought it was cool." Chalk stated. "Now let us find that dam, Nazgo!"

Nazuchi's hands slowly began to connect to his face and sighed as Chalk took off. "When will he ever get my name right?"

Nazuchi proceeded to follow Chalk between the two large cliffs, with the shade thankfully cooling them down. Though, they had to stop when they saw two Shadoos smacking each other and laughing along the way. Nazuchi had to wonder how these monsters could handle being around in the light.

"Hey, look at those fools!" Chalk laughed, gaining the two Shadoos' attention. "They're beating each other up!"

"Chalk... You shouldn't be too loud..." warned Nazuchi, noticing the two Shadoos grin before going up to them. Being alarmed, Nazuchi aimed his bow at one Shadoo and destroyed it with a light arrow.

The other Shadoo was about to leap at Nazuchi, but Chalk suddenly got in its way and hit its head with his Spectral Paintbrush, leaving it unconscious.

"Hey, this gives me an idea!" Chalk began to paint a mustache and silly-looking teeth on the Shadoo with red paint. He even added silly-looking facial hair to the mix. Of course, that only resulted in the Shadoo being set on fire and soon flailing around like some kind of idiot.

"Ummm... OK, you know that should've happened, right?" Nazuchi asked, looking back at Chalk.

"Yeah. But I did that just because it was funny!"

"Errr... OK... Well, I guess it helped anyway." the blonde boy moved on through the empty river. They were able to notice a few rocks and even some bones that resembled fish. It was kind of creepy, especially since the shade around them made the area dark.

Eventually they got out of the shade and found a much larger area. There was another cliff leading down to a large river that seemed to be overflowed. It didn't look like there was any land remaining there.

"So this is the dam..." Nazuchi trailed, making his way to the edge. "Wow... I guess a broken dam can really cause something like this!"

"Yup! Definitely something unexpected!" Chalk said, accidentally pushing Nazuchi and nearly making him fall off the edge. "Whoops! Didn't mean to do that..."

"Ugh... Whatever." Nazuchi groaned, stepping back from the edge. "So where can we find the broken dam?"

"Hey, I see something over there!" Chalk pointed over to a lift that was labeled "Lift to the Dam" in many different colors. The words happened to be lit up as well.

"Huh... Well that's convenient."

They walked over to the lift and let it take them down to the dam. While it began to descend, Nazuchi took out the map Merlee gave them and began to check the location of the next Crystal Star.

"Hey... There's no Crystal Star shown here!" Nazuchi exclaimed. "It's just some areas and no specific location! So much for this map being so..."

The map was suddenly glimmering with light, causing the two to stop and look up at the map that now floated out of Nazuchi's hands. The map slowly floated into Nazuchi's leather gloves as soon as the lift stopped. It was also no longer glowing with light.

But upon looking at the map, they noticed in the Desert Land, some ruins now appeared and looked like it was even popping out of the map. With one shimmer, a green Crystal Star appeared on those ruins.

"Oh... Well... I guess I was wrong about this!" Nazuchi said sheepishly.

"Ooh... Shiny!" Chalk tried to touch the star on the map, but he felt only the map. "Hey! It's not working!"

"That's because that star on here is just showing us that it's in the ruins. The real deal's in there. Anyway, we gotta find that broken dam..." Nazuchi scanned the dock-like floor they now stood on above the water. He noticed the dam nearby with a large hole. "Ah! That must be... Wait a second."

Upon further notice, there was actually something chewing on the dam. And it was certainly someone Nazuchi was not happy to see.

"Oh, great... You again."

The figure stopped and turned to be met with Nazuchi and Chalk. Its face quickly turned red – even though it was already red to begin with.

"What the meork?! You're that meorking meork from that meorking cave!" the Angry Fuzzy yelled. "Who the meork do you think you are, trying to meork with me right now?!"

"Meork!" Chalk cried out. "You must love that word! MEEEEEEEORK!"

"Shut the meork up, meork! Do you know how meorking hard it was to meork off that meork in that cave?"

"You mean that spider web?" Nazuchi pondered. "Oh, yeah... And will you quit using 'meork'? It's getting pretty aggravating..."

"I don't give a meork! You meorks should just get the meork out of here before I meorking meork you!"

The Angry Fuzzy was expecting them to go away, but unfortunately for him, they didn't move. "Well, what the meork are you meorking for?! MEORK!"

"Not until we fix that dam," Nazuchi declared, slowly approaching the Angry Fuzzy and reaching his back for his sword. "And I really don't want to have to use force to get you to let us fix it."

The Angry Fuzzy decided to ignore Nazuchi and jump at him. Thankfully, Chalk's paintbrush was able to smack the Fuzzy's face and send it flying over to the edge. Enraged, the Angry Fuzzy bounced over to Chalk to attack, but Nazuchi jumped on top of it and left it flattened.

But what Nazuchi wasn't expecting the Angry Fuzzy to do was to light on fire. Now his own boots were on fire, causing him to scream and shake his boots to let the flames wear off.

"Now you're going to meorking get it!" the Angry Fuzzy hissed, charging into Nazuchi like a fireball. Chalk instantly took action and painted it blue.

"You look like you need to calm down!" Chalk smiled, extinguishing the fire on the Angry Fuzzy and leaving it vulnerable. Plus, it was painted blue. "And you're feeling pretty blue!"

While Nazuchi face palmed at that last statement, the Angry Fuzzy looked at itself and seemed sickened by its new look. Since the paint was still wet, it quickly jumped into the water to wash off. It was about to hop out, but the current appeared to be too strong for him to get back on the platforms.

"_**ARGH! MEORK!**_" the Angry Fuzzy shouted. "You were meorking lucky, you meorks! Wait until I meork you up next time!"

Its voice only got softer as it was carried farther. And Nazuchi and Chalk only watched it be carried off until it was out of their sights.

"So... Who was that thing?" Chalk wondered. "It sure was angry."

"I remember encountering it before back in the Grass Land, but I think it's called the Angry Fuzzy. At least, that's what I've heard. Anyway, that's not important at the moment." Nazuchi pointed at the broken dam. "We need to find a way to fix that thing!"

"I've got it!" the gray puffball approached the hole in the dam and began to paint over it. The hole was instantly patched, and the water soon began to drain until it was at a fair level. How it managed to drain like that, they had no idea.

Plus, there was now a waterfall.

"That was...strangely convenient," Nazuchi blinked. "But at least there's some water here, right?"

"YEAH!" Chalk cheered, jumping into the large river and being carried away by the current.

"Wait, Chalk! No!" Nazuchi cried. Unfortunately, he was too late, so he was forced to jump into the river in order to follow him.

He was able to grab a hold of a log that coming his way and used it to paddle his way to the right side. There happened to be something up at the distance. To his right, there was a giant sand castle.

"Hey, Nazu! Look at that giant sand castle!" Chalk called out, pointing at the sand castle to their right. While Nazuchi looked up at it, Chalk managed to swim back to Nazuchi and grab the log. There was a large rock in the way that stopped the log and allowed them to get out of the river.

Nazuchi removed his hat and began to squeeze it to let the water drip out. It was nice to know there was at least some water, but with the sun now coming down, this was more of a bad thing.

But the sand castle was more interesting than the sun setting. There were actually a couple of guards patrolling near the castle. Nazuchi suspected that Sandstorm was in there, but then he remembered he was actually in some ruins. He took out the Magical Map and inspected the ruins. What also shocked him was a lime-green dot that now appeared on the map. It was apparently standing right on the ruins.

_"No way... The ruins couldn't be here! Unless..."_

His thoughts stopped when Chalk told him about some dark weirdo wearing purple armor over by the castle.

"Wait, a purple armored person?"

"Yeah! I think he was carrying some crossbow." Chalk explained.

"_Yorishi..._" muttered Nazuchi, noticing Yorishi entering the sand castle. "Well, the map says we're near the next Crystal Star... I'm sure the Desert Tablet is around here then!"

"Then move we shall!"

Nazuchi was confused with Chalk's wording of that, but he decided not to care and made his way toward the sand castle with the gray puffball. Sure, he was a bit of a nuisance at times, but he couldn't help but think he was a lot more helpful than he thought.

And then there was Lilia... Was she truly safe from harm? Being stuck in the Shadow King's prison did not sound great, and neither did the king sound great himself.

And Tagel... Seeing what it had now turned into seemed to disturb Nazuchi. It was such a nice town at first, but now it had turned into a nightmare thanks to the Shadow Queen. Nearly everyone was killed off or perhaps enslaved. These thoughts continued to haunt Nazuchi's mind as they got closer to the sand castle.

Perhaps he would get some answers soon.

* * *

**Yeah, there was not as much action as the previous chapter (only two fights, honestly), but I thought there were a lot of funny moments here. There was also some stuff about the Crystal Stars and even the Shadow Queen too. I know this isn't what exactly happened prior to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, but sometimes I like mixing things up a bit. Kinda makes it interesting. :P  
**

**Well, next chapter will surely have plenty of more action when our heroes go into the sand castle! :D**


	12. Venturing the Sand Castle

Chapter 12: Venturing the Sand Castle

"So, uh..."

"The name's Schwartz."

"Uhhh... Yeah, Schwartz... I have a little question?"

"A question? Well fire away."

An arrow suddenly began to fly at the person, causing it to suddenly duck, with it barely hitting its head. "I didn't mean like that! Yeesh! I mean ask me the question!"

"That wasn't me..."

"...Oh? Then who did it?"

The enemies garbed in light brown chained armor and hoods that covered most of their dark face looked ahead and saw a light arrow coming in their direction. These Desert Brawlers moved their bodies just in time so the arrow hit the castle's entrance instead. The two Desert Brawlers looked at the arrow before turning their attention to the duo coming their way.

"I guess that got their attention," Nazuchi said, putting his bow away.

"You know, that was kinda stupid," Chalk pointed out.

"How come?"

"'Cause you got their attention! Now they're going to be coming after us with their sausages, and I'd be leaving you while you get pounded by those sausages! ...Speaking of sausages, I'm hungry."

"I don't have any food," Nazuchi noted, getting his sword out upon seeing the Desert Brawlers charging at them. "Let's just take care of them!"

Clenching their sandy gauntlets, the two Desert Brawlers lunged at them and tried to punch them. Nazuchi brought his sword up to block the punch, which surprisingly pushed him back a bit. Chalk even created a barrier with his paintbrush, but that was easily shattered.

"Wowzas! They sure do know how to punch!" Chalk realized, jumping away when one Desert Brawler punched the ground, creating a small shockwave around it.

"That's because our brawler gauntlets allow us to smash through anything in our path," the first Desert Brawler explained. "My guess is you people are intruders, is that correct?"

"Beats me," Nazuchi answered, swinging his sword and creating a Sword Beam that flew in the enemies' direction. This sent them flying to the door and even broke it down as well.

Before approaching the entrance, the two noticed the sky had changed to the dark red from before. They guessed it was because the darkness lingering this land was still around here. Marvelous.

"CHARGE!" Chalk shouted, bolting over to the broken door and hitting on of the Desert Brawlers in the head with his paintbrush. Nazuchi ran over to him, but the other Desert Brawler managed to get up and deliver a punch to his face, causing him to fall back on the sandy floor.

Looking up at the brawler, it cracked its knuckles and smirked under its hood before getting ready to throw in another punch. Nazuchi immediately rolled out of the way before he could get punched again, which caused the Desert Brawler's fist to get stuck in the sand.

"D'oh! My arm's stuck!"

"Then pull it out, dumbo!" the other Desert Brawler exclaimed despite being hit in the head by Chalk's paintbrush. "And you should let me get up!"

Chalk ignored the enemy and decided to paint a couple of flowers and a sun on the Desert Brawler's back. Since it was white paint, the brawler found itself solidified in ice. Chalk painted a red X afterward, and soon the Desert Brawler was no longer frozen, but now set ablaze.

And as usual, Chalk was laughing like an idiot.

"Whoa, Chalk! Hurting people is NOT funny!" Nazuchi scolded, swinging his sword at the Desert Brawler near him to knock it down. "That just makes you a jerk!"

"But they're the bad guys!" Chalk retorted. "It's fine to laugh at them!"

"Yes, they are the bad guys, but it's not right to simply laugh when they're in pain. It doesn't make you look better. In fact, it kinda makes you stoop down to their level a bit..."

"...What?"

Nazuchi ended up face palming. Typical reaction from Chalk. But there was no time to be thinking about that when he heard the Desert Brawler get up. Storing power in his sword, Nazuchi froze the Desert Brawler with an ice slash. With a simple tap from his leather boot, the enemy shattered.

With a satisfied look on his face, Nazuchi whipped up a bomb and threw it at the other Desert Brawler. Well, it would've hit it, but the enemy threw it back, only for Chalk to interfere and swung his paintbrush like a baseball bat at the bomb. The Desert Brawler gaped before it soon disintegrated from the explosion.

"Well that takes care of that," Nazuchi sighed, putting his sword away. "Wait... Where are we anyway?"

From the look of their surroundings, they were in a small room with a door just up ahead, as well as a few small windows. A rug made of sand led up to the door as well. In fact, mostly everything was made out of sand.

"I wonder if the owner of this castle is named Sandy," Chalk wondered.

"Ha ha ha, very funny," Nazuchi sarcastically laughed. "I sure didn't see that one coming... Anyway, let's see what's up ahead."

Entering through the door, they were led into a hallway with a large, brown door up ahead at the hall's end. However, midway through the hall was another passage they could take too. Also, there were a few Desert Brawlers roaming through the halls as well. They also took notice of the sandy rug and the armored knights hanging on the walls.

When Nazuchi started to walk, one knight brought its sword down near his feet, causing him to recoil and draw his glowing light sword.

"...What the heck was that?" Nazuchi wondered, looking up at the knights on the walls. "Are they even real?"

Chalk walked over to one and began to bang on it with his paintbrush. "Nope! They look normal to me! Maybe we oughta-"

The knight's leg moved, knocking Chalk back in the process. "Oh... I guess...it moves?"

Nazuchi took a couple of steps back before running past the knight, which barely managed to slice him in half. Chalk ended up using clear paint on the sword, which made it disappear.

With a smirk, Chalk walked past the knight and approached the hallway to the right. Two rolling statues were coming their way, making them step back just in time for them to bump into the wall.

When they stood, they resembled brown rock creatures with large oval-shaped bodies with stubby arms and large hands. They had large feet as well, but they did not appear to have legs.

"They're fat!" Chalk laughed.

"Whaaa? Me no fat!" one of the rock creatures known as a Rocko gaped. "Who said that?! Me crush them!"

"Uhhhhh... Me say that." Nazuchi answered, trying to imitate the other Rocko.

"WHAT?!" the first Rocko turned to its companion and bonked its head. "Why you call me fat?! You be one to talk!"

"Huh? Me don't understand what you say..." the other Rocko trailed. "Me say nothing about weight!"

Their arguing continued, and both Nazuchi and Chalk could only listen to them bicker until it turned violent. Both Rockos began to punch at each other, even if it was not doing as much to each other.

"...Wait, Me realize something."

"What?"

"Me see two others here? They intruders?"

"Beats me. Me suggest crushing them!"

"Uh oh..." Nazuchi gulped, readying his sword. "Get ready, Chalk!"

Chalk twirled his paintbrush and aimed it at the Rocko rolling toward him. He began to paint it red, but unfortunately, it had no effect on the rock monster. However, with the clear paint, he was able to erase it from existence. Chalk stood proudly, while Nazuchi recoiled when the other Rocko tried punching him.

Because of how dumb the Rocko was, Nazuchi couldn't help but enjoy fighting this monster. It was slow, pretty dumb, and its voice was funny!

"Slow down! Me crush you, but you so fast!" the Rocko shouted, getting its arm stuck in the sand. "Oy! Me arm! It's stuck!"

Nazuchi took this time to cut off the other Rocko's arm, since it was too distracted. Seeing the arm fall to the ground, Nazuchi tried picking up, albeit he was having a bit of a hard time.

"Need a hand?" Nazuchi taunted before slicing the enemy up with a couple of sword swings. When he was done, the Rocko was turned into dust. "Well, those two are taken care of."

"What about those guys?" Chalk pointed at the Desert Brawlers up ahead, who had not taken notice of them.

"Well they weren't paying attention, so we can just take this other way through the hall, y'know?"

Chalk nodded and took the hallway to the right. There, they found a couple of windows with red light coming through the sandy glass. A couple of tall, green robed characters wearing white masks with holes for their eyes and mouth were coming in their direction. One bumped into Nazuchi, making ten of his coins drop from his inventory and into the enemy's hands.

"I'll be takin' that!" the enemy known as a Bandit grinned before running away. Nazuchi, irritated by the Bandit, got an arrow and lit it on fire with a fire arrow, making it drop his coins while running around the hallway, flailing its arms in the process.

Of course, Chalk was snickering, but he was scolded once again by Nazuchi before another Bandit was coming their way to snatch the coins on the ground. Thankfully, Nazuchi reacted just in time and knocked the Bandit back with a boot to the face. He then grabbed his coins before another Bandit could snatch them.

But Chalk had another idea. Another Bandit came running after them, so he pointed his paintbrush downward and then swung it up, making sand fly at the Bandit and leave it buried in the sand.

"Whoa... Where'd you learn that?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Beats me! I just felt like doing it!" Chalk said predictably before running ahead. Nazuchi could only face palm before following him to the end of the hallway. They ended up skipping a door to their right, but they didn't care, since there was a door up ahead.

Unfortunately, the door happened to be locked.

An idea suddenly struck Chalk as he whipped out his paintbrush and began to paint it clear, eliminating the door in the process. A smirk appeared on his face until he realized there were about four Rockos in a large room.

"Well... I think this is the wrong room..." Chalk sweat dropped.

Nazuchi got a bomb ready and rolled it toward a few Rockos. The bomb exploded, blowing a few Rockos away and leaving only one left. The remaining enemy quickly curled up in a ball and began to roll in their direction.

But Nazuchi was prepared. He ran forward and swung his sword at the Rocko while passing it. Before the Rocko could even get to Chalk, it was soon split in half.

"So much for being rated K plus!" Chalk exclaimed.

"Well it's not like their defeat was gruesome," mentioned Nazuchi. "They're rocks. Nothing special."

"Good point."

With the enemies out of the open room, they decided to explore it for themselves. There happened to be a rock in the shape of a cube over by the corner, just like others on each corner. Nazuchi looked at the closest one to the lower left corner and tried pulling it away. Thankfully it wasn't heavy, so pulling it was very simple.

The only thing they found hidden was a bag of chips covered in sand. Chalk quickly snatched the bag and tore the bag open before proceeding to dump the chips in his mouth.

"Yummy! Finally some food!" Chalk cheered.

"W-Wait! What about me?!" Nazuchi cried. "I'm a bit hungry too, you know!"

Chalk stopped eating the chips and decided to dump what was left in Nazuchi's leather glove. Unfortunately, only crumbs came out.

"Uhhh... You can have those!"

"Gee... Thanks..." groaned Nazuchi, eating the crumbs, which hardly did anything to help him. "Anyway, let's check the other rocks."

Nazuchi walked to the rock to the upper left, and upon pulling it, he found a key hidden. He snatched it and put it away before Chalk could get his hands on it, feeling that he'd just destroy it or do something bad with it.

Checking the lower right corner, all the same out was a Shroude that was hiding underneath the rock. Nazuchi tried to make a move, but the Shroude swung its long finger and knocked him back, along with Chalk.

The Shroude attempted to stab them, but Nazuchi got up quickly and blocked the attack with the Sword of Light. While he held off the enemy, Chalk made his way behind the Shroude and proceeded to paint it green, leaving it poisoned. It could no longer try to hit Nazuchi and was flying back.

"Oh no you don't!" Nazuchi shouted, getting an ice arrow ready and firing it at the Shroude, leaving it frozen in midair. To finish it off, Nazuchi swung his sword and fired a wave of light energy at the dark monster, destroying it within seconds.

"Cool," Chalk smiled. "I wanna see more!"

"I don't think there's any more around here," Nazuchi noted before pulling the rock to the lower left. Surprisingly, there was a secret hole revealed, so he decided to jump down and see what was there.

Unfortunately, there was not much around except for a little gray on a few of the walls. When Chalk joined his companion, he saw the gray on the wall and got his clear paint ready to wipe the wall away. There happened to be a hidden chest through that wall. However, what they found inside was not something they were expecting.

"What the... What's this?" Nazuchi gawked, noticing the rainbow-colored paint ball that was bouncing in his hands. "Looks like some kind of ball..."

The ball took notice of Chalk's Spectral Paintbrush and quickly jumped out of Nazuchi's hands. It landed on the tip of Chalk's paintbrush and was quickly absorbed into the weapon. Even Chalk was a little surprised.

"Whoa... What just..." Chalk noticed paint suddenly shooting out of the brush's tip. It happened to spray blue paint on the walls, leaving them wet in the end. "Ha HA! I can shoot paint at long distances! How cool is that?!"

"Hmmmm... Well, I guess that might help us." Nazuchi shrugged. "And I suppose you might get upgrades too, just like the bow and bombs I received..."

"Cool. Let's go use this on those baddies!" the gray puffball skipped over to the spring that happened to be below the hole and used it to exit the room. Nazuchi soon followed out and saw Chalk waiting for him in the hall.

Since they hadn't checked the other path in the hallway, they turned to their right at the end of the hallway and were met with a couple of Desert Brawlers over by a locked door. Nazuchi found it strange how these enemies didn't take notice of those Rockos before...

However, now that they were closer, the enemies now took notice of them and started to charge at them. Chalk took this opportunity to shoot white paint at them and leave them frozen solid.

"This is what I'm talking about!" Chalk cheered. "I'm going to own these guys before they even get to me!"

"Yeah, I guess you're, uh, owning," Nazuchi replied, unsure of what to say while he approached the locked door. Taking the rusty key out, he inserted it into the keyhole and moved his right hand clockwise, unlocking the door in the process. "Well there we go! It's the right key after all!"

"What do you mean after all?" the puffball wondered, following Nazuchi through the door. They happened to discover a ladder up ahead, but to their right was another door. That one appeared to be locked, unfortunately. Instead, they decided to climb up the ladder.

Looking up, Nazuchi could hear a couple of voices. When he could see the upper floor, there was a large pile of sand to the left corner, but slightly to the right, there was a hall up ahead. There were two Shadoos following Yorishi up to the door ahead.

_"Where is he going?" _Nazuchi thought before he felt his boots being poked. "What is it, Chalk?"

"Hurry up! I can't climb this all day! I don't even have fingers!"

"Then how do you carry your paint-" the blonde boy paused for a moment in order to think about his question. "Actually, never mind. Not like that's important anyway..."

Nazuchi climbed up to the top of the ladder so he could get onto the upper floor and allow Chalk to join him. Unfortunately, when they reached the hallway Yorishi walked through, they noticed something...off.

"Whoa, look at that section of the floor near the door!" Chalk gaped, pointing up ahead. "It's empty!"

"Plus we've got a little company too," Nazuchi added, drawing his sword upon seeing the two Shadoos running after them. He readied his sword by moving it behind him while storing enough power for a powerful sword spin. Chalk twirled his paintbrush before shooting a glob of yellow paint at one Shadoo, leaving it paralyzed.

_**"****Yaaack! I...can't...move!" **_the Shadoo winced.

_**"****Oh calm down! I know what'll take care of 'em!" **_the other Shadoo reached into its mouth and took out a large ball of gooey darkness. It threw it like a bowling ball at Nazuchi, but when Chalk shot blue paint at it, it only washed off. _**"D'oh! Stupid...whatever that was!"**_

Chalk smiled as he shot blue paint at that Shadoo, washing it away in the process. He did the same thing to the paralyzed Shadoo, clearing the way to the empty section of the floor. He decided to shoot paint at that section, and to Nazuchi's surprise, what was once empty was now appearing before him.

"Oh... Well that's cool, I guess." Nazuchi gawked, unsure of what else to say. "Well, let's go follow Yorishi."

Nazuchi kicked the door opened and found themselves outside. There appeared to be a long bridge going up to another section of the sand castle ahead. Some Desert Brawlers were manning some cannons as well by the door up ahead.

But there was no sign of Yorishi...

"That whatever-the-heck-his-name-is sure is fast," Chalk stated. "I bet he knows we're here!"

"He never even saw us... I'm pretty sure he's..." Nazuchi paused when he saw a cannonball flying in his direction. He and Chalk recoiled as a hole was made on the bridge.

"HEY! YOU JUST DAMAGED YOUR CASTLE!" Chalk yelled, making the Desert Brawlers realize their mistakes and abandon the cannons. "What idiots!"

Nazuchi had to admit that damaging the bridge was kind of a dumb move on the Desert Brawler's part, but he realized they could not move on. "Well... The hole is blocking our way, that's for sure."

Realizing this, Chalk got his paintbrush ready and squirted paint at the hole to make it solid. Of course, the Desert Brawlers took notice of this and were no longer sweating. They immediately charged at the two, only to be left frozen by white paint and ice arrows.

When the two finally reached the frozen Desert Brawlers, Nazuchi passed by them and walked over to the door until he noticed Chalk wasn't with him.

"Huh? ...Chalk, what are you doing?" Nazuchi asked, looking back Chalk.

"I'm making faces!"

"I don't see you making a face, though..."

"I'm making faces on these guys!" Chalk corrected, painting stupid faces on the frozen Desert Brawlers in red paint. "Whoever thought red would look cool on these guys when they're frozen!"

"I guess red paint does..." Nazuchi admitted, looking at the faces Chalk drew. However, he soon realized something. "Chalk! That's red paint! You know, fire?!"

"And?"

"Fire melts ice, you idiot!"

"Ohhhhh..."

"Yeah! 'Ohhhhhhhhhh'! Now they're going to attack! Whatever..." Nazuchi sighed, getting his sword ready. "I guess we'll just have to beat them twice now."

Swinging his sword, two flaming Sword Beams were fired at two Desert Brawlers, setting them on fire and making them jump off the bridge. Chalk simply whacked the other two to force them off the bridge. It was surprisingly easy... Well, it would've been if two Bandits and a Rocko didn't bust through the door ahead.

"Heh heh! I bet these fool's got money on 'em!" one Bandit snickered. "Perhaps they'd like to share!"

"Forget sharing! It's all MINE!" the second Bandit sneered, charging at the two heroes ahead. They took notice of them and got in their fighting positions. Chalk made the first move and proceeded to beat the Bandit in front of him with his Spectral Paintbrush. He then painted a stupid face in green on the Bandit's mask, leaving it poisoned.

Chalk stood proudly until he got knocked back by the other Bandit, who now held ten coins above its head. It gave Chalk a snarky grin before running back to the door ahead. The Bandit would've continued if there wasn't a Rocko rolling his way.

"Wah?! Hey, heavy! Don't roll me-"

The Bandit could not finish its sentence as it got flattened like a pancake by the rolling Rocko. After stopping in front of Nazuchi and Chalk, it looked back at the flattened Bandit.

"Uhhhh... Me do that?" the Rocko wondered.

"Uhhhhhhh... Yeah. You do that." Chalk answered, trying to imitate the Rocko. "...Oh, who am I kidding? EAT PAINT LASER!"

A large amount of paint shot out from Chalk's paintbrush onto the Rocko. It was mostly blue paint that got on the Rocko and left it weathered down from the water. Nazuchi left it frozen with an ice slash, and then he shattered it with a simple flick of his finger. Now all that remained were the two Bandits.

The one left poisoned slowly got itself up and tried to attack Nazuchi, but because of the poison, it didn't even have the strength to attack. Because of that, Chalk was able to comically throw the Bandit off the bridge by using his paintbrush as a baseball bat. He was even imagining a whole crowd cheering for him after making the swing.

Nazuchi turned his attention to the remaining Bandit, who was able to stand up and blow into its thumb to help unflatten itself. Seeing the coins, it grabbed them and began to scurry over to the door ahead. Nazuchi got his bow ready and fired a fire arrow, but the Bandit had already gotten away, making the arrow hit the door instead, setting it on fire.

"Aw, man!" Nazuchi sighed. "I knew that was a stupid move!"

He tried hitting the door with an ice arrow, but that hardly did much, due to the ice magic only being melted away.

"Say, Nazjoe," Chalk started. "How many arrows ya got in there? You must've used a lot so far!"

"Hmmmmm... You know, now that you mention it..." Nazuchi pondered, checking his bow and his quiver. "I think this Magic Bow supplies an infinite amount of arrows. I mean, they're magic, right? Plus, they fire kinda like lasers and not like real arrows! I suppose that makes them awesome, right?"

"Not as awesome as this!" the gray puffball shot a large amount of blue paint at the door ahead, extinguishing the flames in the process. "I bet your bow can't do that!"

"No... It can't. But at least you're here to help. Anyway, let's just go through that door."

Entering the door, they found a ladder up ahead, as well as a door to their right. They decided to go to that door first and end up in a hallway with Thwomps up on the ceiling that were ready to crush anyone that walked under them. They could obviously tell by the shadows on the ground.

"Oh, geez... Thwomps are here." Nazuchi groaned. "Brings me back when I was eight. I got stuck in the sewers one day, and I saw these guys shaking the place up. Thank goodness for Lighten coming to save me, though."

"And I... Uhhh... Well, I don't know." Chalk said unsurely before trying to hit the Thwomp. "Well that's not going to help..."

"How about you use clear paint to get rid of it? Surely that'll come in handy!"

"Hmmmmm... Let me try then!" Chalk readied his paintbrush and shot clear paint at the Thwomp. It only partially erased the rock monster, but the paint only disappeared afterward. "Well that ain't working."

Nazuchi let out a sigh and began to ponder while the Thwomps began to bang on the sandy floor. Seeing them hit the sand made him think about something, though.

"Hey, Chalk... Don't you think it's strange how these Thwomps are hitting sand? You know, something that isn't completely hard. There's gotta be something holding this ground.

"What about this conveniently placed switch?" Chalk mentioned, pointing to a purple orb sitting on a skinny pedestal. "I bet it'll do something"

"Oh... Well that's...convenient." Nazuchi struck it with his sword, causing the section where the Thwomps were coming down to open up and make sand fall down. When the Thwomps came down through the hole, they were stuck in quicksand and unable to get out, no matter how hard they tried.

Smiling, Nazuchi used the Thwomps as a bridge to make it across the hallway and to the door ahead. Going through the door, they found themselves in a small room with a smaller Thwomp sleeping on a pedestal. There were no windows, yet the room was not dark.

Nazuchi held his sword close in case if the Thwomp attack, but unfortunately, as usual, Chalk had to step in and decided to poke the rock enemy with his paintbrush.

"I think I have an idea!" Chalk snickered, drawing glasses and a silly mustache on the Thwomp, as well as buck teeth. He was using red paint, which apparently didn't do much to the Thwomp except for waking it up.

"Hmmmmm? Who dares disturb my slumber?" the Thwomp asked, now wide awake. "I haven't been awaken in decades! This better be good!"

"Whoa, this Thwomp actually talks," Nazuchi gaped. "Anyway... We were just exploring this sand castle and-"

"No, don't tell me. I know why you're here. You want to get to the top of this sand castle, don'tcha?"

"It's almost if he's reading our minds!" Chalk gasped.

"Y'see, I carry the key you need to get to where you want!" the Thwomp explained, ignoring Chalk. "Now don't think I'm just goin' to give it to you so easily! You're gonna have to beat me in order to acquire this possession!"

"Really? Well, it doesn't hurt to fight you, especially a Thwomp!" Nazuchi smirked, readying his sword and bombs. "Bring it!"

"Mmmmmmm ho ho ho! I never said we were going to fight!" the Thwomp cackled, making both Nazuchi and Chalk blink before lowering their weapons. "I'll show you what I'm talkin' about!"

Nazuchi and Chalk stared at the room with widened eyes while it began to transform. No longer were there light brown sandy walls, but a black wall with many circular blue lights that were both on the walls, ceiling and floor. There was also a large screen hanging between them and the Thwomp, who now wore sunglasses and a red bow-tie with white polkadots. They were even standing right by a red stand with a large, red button.

"What in the world...?" Nazuchi gaped.

"Where'd everything go?!" Chalk cried.

"Hey hey hey, ladies and germs! It's time for the 15th Super Exciting Annual Quirk Quiz! ...Or for short, S.E.A.Q.! Now listen up, folks! If you answer five questions correctly, then you win a special prize! But if you end up answering three wrong, then let's just say you'll be paying a price..."

"Oh, great... A quiz show." Nazuchi groaned. "Just what we need here..."

"Now for Question one! What is it that I carry with me?"

"Well obviously the key," Chalk answered. "You even said yourself!"

"Are you suuuuuuuuure that's your answer?"

"Of course!"

The two heard a dinging noise above the room, while the large monitor had a green check mark appear. The Thwomp, on the other hand, was none too pleased and was spinning like crazy.

"AAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH! That's...correct!" the Thwomp answered, trying to stay calm. "All right, sure, you got one question right, but they're only going to get harder from here! So be prepared!"

"Ummmm... OK?" Nazuchi shrugged.

"Are you ready for Question 2? All right, then! What is my favorite color?"

"That is... Wait, what?! What kind of question is that?!"

"You gotta answer," the Thwomp noted. "You only have a limited amount of time to answer!"

"Ummmmmmmm... Gray?"

Rather than a green checkmark, a red X appeared on the monitor instead, and the Thwomp was cackling like crazy.

"Mmmmmmmmm ho ho ho! WRONG! Wrong wrong WRONG, you fools! That's strike one for you!"

"But how were we supposed to know the answer?!" exclaimed Nazuchi, appalled by the question given to him.

"I'd be careful if I were you... Get two more questions wrong, and you'll be getting a cruel or unusual punishment! So perk up those ears for Question 3! Who was the ruler of Tagel before the Shadow Queen took it for herself?"

"King Braze, obviously," the blonde boy answered proudly, hearing the dinging noise again and watching the Thwomp have another episode.

"Oh, come on! ...I mean, that's correct! But that one was way too easy. This one should be much harder, so be ready! ...Anyway, onto Question 4! Where is the Desert Tablet located?"

"Obviously in those ruins place that's probably below here!" Chalk answered loudly, making a green checkmark appear on the monitor.

"Gwuh... OK, that's right! Now I'm not playing any more games! Question 5 is next! Who is the name of the bounty hunter working for the Shadow Queen?"

"Yorishi," Nazuchi answered.

"Are you suuuuuuuuuure about that?" the Thwomp asked, only to receive a nod. Out of frustration, it began to jump up and down on its pedestal. "Remain calm, Thwompie... Don't act like a baby. Anyway, onto Question 6, chumps! Who is the princess of Tagel until it was destroyed?"

"That's Lilia! ...And do you honestly have to rub in the fact that my hometown is destroyed?!"

"Blurgh... Well, you're right with that question. ….Wait a sec, don't tell me you just got four questions correct! That's it! I'm making this one straight out impossible! And since you got two questions wrong, you're guaranteed to lose this one! So be prepared!"

"I'm PSYCHED!" Chalk exclaimed.

The Thwomp gave a smirk. "It's time for the final question of the day! Who is the mysterious being wearing the shrouded cloak that works for the Shadow King?"

"Oh, that?" Nazuchi gawked. "That's such an easy question! It's-"

"Yargo!" Chalk cheered.

"Chalk! No!"

Looking up at the monitor, a red X appeared, making the Thwomp and even the nonexistent audience laugh at their stupidity.

"Hwa hwa hwa hwa! Oh my gosh, HOW could you get something like that wrong?!" the Thwomp laughed. "Well, ladies and germs, looks like these suckers lost the quiz! And for that, they must pay the price!"

Spinning around, the lights and stand disappeared, turning the room back to normal. Nazuchi couldn't help but give the proud Chalk a glare before the Thwomp stopped in place.

"Now for your punishment!"

Two Shadoo Brutes dropped down from the ceiling in front of the two heroes, who recoiled before they could get hit. "I'll make a deal with you: if you're capable of beating these guys, then maybe I might consider giving you the key you need! Then again, I highly doubt you'll even be able to beat them! They're too strong for you!"

Nazuchi got his sword ready and pointed it at the two Shadoo Brutes. "Well we've faced these kind of guys before. This shouldn't be any different!"

When one Shadoo Brute extended its arm to grab him, Nazuchi jumped to the side and managed to chop off its arm. However, that didn't do much because the brute's arm only regenerated. However, it could not stand a light arrow Nazuchi was able to shoot into its chest, causing the light to envelop part of its body.

Chalk ran up to the Shadoo Brute and began to paint it yellow to leave it paralyzed, and then he turned his attention to the other one and began to paint it green, leaving it poisoned. Nazuchi smiled at this, almost forgetting about what he did so he could finish the paralyzed Shadoo Brute.

The paralyzed brute attempted to move its arm, but Nazuchi was much quicker and managed to drive his sword into the enemy's chest. While it roared, he tossed a bomb into its mouth and let it explode, disintegrating the enemy in the process.

Satisfied, Nazuchi prepared to strike the remaining brute, but he was only knocked back by its powerful arms when it got near him. Chalk, on the other hand, managed to distract it by painting its back red, setting it on fire in the process. But that hardly did much, because Chalk was only grabbed and thrown toward Nazuchi.

Thankfully, Nazuchi rolled out of the way just in time so Chalk could hit the sandy ground face-first. The gray puffball pulled his face out of the sand and spat out the remaining sand left on his tongue. At this point, he was not happy, and Nazuchi could certainly tell.

Chalk aimed his paintbrush like a gun at the Shadoo Brute and began to fire blue paint at the abomination. While it didn't manage to wash away the dark gooey monster, it left it drenched and week, allowing Chalk to paint it white and freeze it. After using red paint, the Shadoo Brute was no more.

While the two stood proudly, the Thwomp could only gape at their victory.

"Wh-What?! You've gotta be kidding me!" the Thwomp complained. "Those were some powerful foes I had set up, yet you defeat them?! How is this possible?!"

"Look, we beat them, and you promised us a key, so hand it over," demanded Nazuchi.

"Humph... Well, I can't break a promise, so it looks like I have no other choice." With that, the Thwomp spun around, revealing a red key. "Now get outta here! I think I wanna take a nap so I can forget about this!"

Nazuchi smiled as he picked up the key and held up a peace sign while shouting, "Victory!"

"Victory? But we didn't get the Land Tablet yet!" Chalk reminded, making Nazuchi sigh.

"I meant that fight... But yeah, we haven't gotten that yet. Anyway, let's get outta here."

* * *

**One moment later-**

Now back at the ladder, the two began to climb up to the next floor to be met with a small room with a ladder leading up to the red ray coming down from the ceiling.

"Well, looks like we're getting closer to Yorishi," Nazuchi noted, listening to the voices above them.

"And there aren't any enemies to get in our way!" Chalk exclaimed. "How awesome is that?"

"That's...very nice," the blonde boy answered unsurely as he began to climb up the ladder. "Let's try to be quiet, OK?"

Chalk gave him a nod and proceeded to climb up the ladder to follow his companion. The closer they reached the top, the louder the voices were. Nazuchi could even see a bit of Yorishi when he slowly unlocked the door on the ceiling with the key he got.

"Yes, I've got that all under control, Sandstorm," Yorishi assured.

_"What is he talking about?" _Nazuchi thought, slowly opening the door. He could see at this point that they were outside and at the highest point of the sand castle. Thankfully, Yorishi was turned away from the two when they managed to get themselves onto the sandy floor.

"...Oh, I think it looks like I have to go," Yorishi mentioned, eyeing what was behind him. "Good luck with your task!"

Clenching his fist, the magical image of Sandstorm disappeared, and he turned to face Nazuchi and Chalk. "Well well well... If it isn't my good friend Nazuchi! And what's this? He's got a new friend with him!"

"We're gonna kick your butt all the way to your boss!" Chalk shouted as he held aimed his paintbrush and began to fire paint in Yorishi's direction. However, this plan didn't appear to work when Yorshi pulled out a few pellets and threw them at the paint, making it disintegrate upon contact. "Oh... I guess that didn't work."

"Look, I'd love to stay here and fight you guys, but the Shadow Queen wants me at her service at the moment. Call it a cowardly move, but I have a bigger priority at the moment."

Yorishi began to slowly step away until the wind around them began to get stronger. Sand began to blow everywhere as well, forcing both Nazuchi and Chalk to cover their faces. Yorishi only cackled and looked at them with his white eyes. "I believe I can get some people to play with you, though!"

Jumping off the sand castle, a couple of Desert Brawlers landed on the ground. They instantly began to charge at them and successfully knocked them back due to the sandstorm distracting them.

"Oh, crud! I think this is what that Sandstorm guy was talking about before!" Nazuchi cried. "We've gotta get somewhere safe at this moment!"

"But where?" Chalk cried.

"Let's go back inside!"

And so they did go back inside, but the Desert Brawlers were not going to let them get away, so they followed down the ladder. But before one could even climb down to the ladder's bottom, that enemy got frozen by an ice arrow and soon shattered upon hitting the floor.

The last Desert Brawler jumped off the ladder in order to try to punch either one of them, but Chalk made it trip and fall forward on the ground. He noticed a key that happened to be in its pocket, so he quickly snatched it and painted the Desert Brawler white to freeze it.

"Hey, Nazgu! I've got a key!" Chalk cried, holding up the key proudly.

"Hmmmm... I think I remember a lock being somewhere in this castle... But I think we have to go across that bridge."

"Well we can handle it, 'cause I'm awesome!"

Nazuchi sweat dropped before going down the next ladder to the door leading to the bridge. Unfortunately, since it was outside, the sandstorm was getting in their way and slowing them down in the process. Regardless, they managed to make it to the door on the other side and were back inside.

Going back through the hallway and down the ladder, they discovered a locked door that was back to their right before. Chalk decided to try to unlock it, and surprisingly, it worked. Though, one thing that caught them off guard was the hole that was created by the sandstorm, making large gusts of wind and sand come in.

"Oh, geez... It doesn't look like this castle can hold onto this storm much longer!" Nazuchi gulped. "Quick! Into that door!"

Through that door, they discovered a large, jagged hole in front of them. Unfortunately, they couldn't see where it led, since they could not see the bottom, but surely it was a long jump.

"Where do you think this leads, Naz?" Chalk asked, looking down at the hole.

"Hmmmm..." Nazuchi pulled out the magic map and noticed the green Crystal Star on the map flashing when pointing at the hole. "Well, the map seems to be reacting to this hole. It's possible that Sandstorm is through this hole, as well as the Crystal Star! No wonder the map showed us over the star!"

"So we're close?"

"Uh huh! Follow me, Chalk!"

Nazuchi jumped into the hole, while Chalk watched him fall until he no longer could be seen. "You know, now that I think about it, that sandstorm hardly did anything, considering that it can't go through a freaking sand castle!"

With a smile, Chalk followed Nazuchi into the hole, eager to know what would lie at the bottom. However, little did they know that there were some people following them through the door.

"So I believe the ruins are just this way..."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Uh huh! The next Crystal Star is said to be underground in some ruins, and this hole is our only hint! Good thing I'm here for you guys, right?"

"Just shut up so we can go down there... This sandstorm is starting to tear this place apart!"

"OK, fine... But if we find that blonde kid, don't let him get that star!"

After a slight agreement, they all jumped into the hole.

* * *

**Definitely a much longer chapter than the previous one, that's for sure, but maybe some of you people don't mind this chapter's length...**

**Originally this was going to be the place where the boss would be fought, but I soon realized that we already had a castle for a last area before the boss, so I did something a little different. There were also a few references to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door such as the quiz show you have to participate in. And yes, if you actually get three questions wrong, you're forced to fight something to pass.**

**Next up, Nazuchi and Chalk explore what's through the hole, and perhaps they might meet some people as well! And perhaps something new might appear as well!**


	13. Ruined

Chapter 13: Ruined

When Nazuchi landed, he noticed he ended up hitting a spring first, which helped him keep a softer landing. Sadly, he was not expecting Chalk to land on top of him and knock him over.

"Well that was a soft landing!" Chalk smiled, standing up. "Weird place, isn't it, Nazgo? …Nazgo?"

He heard some moaning from below and looked down to see Nazuchi dazed. He looked away from him sheepishly and stepped off the blonde kid, allowing him to stand up and brush himself together.

"Sorry..."

Nazuchi gave the gray puffball a glare and was about to scold him, but he ended up sighing and lowering his arm. "You know... It's not that worth it. It's partially my fault, actually."

"Whatever you say, Blondie," Chalk said, brushing himself off as well before looking around the room. "You sure these are ruins? They sure don't look like it..."

Indeed Chalk was correct. When Nazuchi got a better glimpse of the room they were in, he could see the floor and walls were actually made of marble. They could actually see their own reflection through it too. There were even two statues next to a door ahead that appeared to be in the image of Sandstorm.

"Yeah, this place doesn't feel like we're in ruins. But I'm sure we'll ruin Sandstorm when we find him!"

"Yeeeah... That wasn't funny."

Nazuchi frowned, but he decided not to let that bother him and walked over to the door ahead. Chalk followed him to the door and kicked it open to find a larger room with a staircase to the left leading to an upper section of the room, while up ahead there were Desert Brawlers carrying spears called Desert Lancers.

Going up the staircase, they were led to a platform and another platform up ahead with a gap in between them. Below was a small staircase leading to a door, but it appeared to be blocked.

"That gap looks too wide for us to jump..." Nazuchi trailed. "You've got any idea, Chalk?"

"Ooh! I know!" Chalk approached the edge and began to paint a bridge that led up to the switch. The shape of the switch appeared to be a simple orb they could hit, kind of like the one in the hallway with the Thwomps. Nevertheless, Chalk hit it and made the bars on the door disappear.

However, when they landed on the staircase below, the two Desert Lancers happened to spot them and prepared to charge. One thing to note about these enemies were their larger gauntlets and boots to help give them the strength to carry spears.

"Intruders!" the Desert Lancer shouted, attempted to stab the two with its spear. It ended up missing and got its spear stuck in the wall instead. Chalk took this chance to paint the enemy yellow, leaving it paralyzed. The other enemy, though, managed to land a hit on Chalk and knock him back. Thankfully, Nazuchi managed to step in and attack the Desert Lancer with a single strike from his sword, allowing it to get knocked back.

After taunting the Desert Lancer, Nazuchi drew a bomb and threw it at the enemy to let it blow up in its face. The only thing it managed to do was knock the Desert Lancer on its back. Nazuchi jumped in the air afterward and attempted to finish off the enemy, but the Desert Lancer managed to defend itself and knock the blonde boy away.

"Yeesh... These guys are a lot more difficult." Nazuchi grunted, skidding backwards near Chalk. Ironically, he was facing away from Nazuchi, and they were both facing a Desert Lancer in their direction.

While this appeared strange to be in a position like this, the two smirked and took action, with Nazuchi rolling under the Desert Lancer's spear and stabbing at it upon getting up. Chalk managed to leave the enemy he was facing poisoned with green paint, and soon he finished it off with red paint. Nazuchi finished off the remaining Desert Lancer with one last sword swing.

Satisfied, the two approached the door at the top of the staircase and entered it. They found themselves in a very large, circular room. There was a door just up ahead, as well as one to their left and right. The center of the room had a very large statue of Sandstorm.

"I'm guessing this is one of the main rooms of this place," Nazuchi guessed, seeing how large the area was. "I'm surprised there aren't any enemies lurking around here."

They decided to check and see if there was anything in the room to the right, since the other two doors were locked. The room was surprisingly large, with some narrow walkways going over bottomless pits. At the end of the room was a chest, which made Chalk run straight for the bridge until Nazuchi grabbed him.

"Hey, what gives?!"

"Look," Nazuchi placed his feet on the bridge, and the section he stood on started to shake. He stepped back to allow the rocky section to fall into the pit. "This walkway isn't sturdy... We better be quick on this bridge."

The broken section ended up materializing back into place, which left the two surprised, but they sprinted to the other platform across the weak bridge.

"So... What do you think is down here?" Chalk wondered, looking down at the pit.

"I don't know, Chalk, but I wouldn't recommend checking it out..."

Chalk shrugged and looked over to their right. There was another bridge similar to the previous one, while there was another dead ahead. Taking the one up ahead only led them to a dead end, so they were forced to go back. Going in the right direction turned out to be the, well, right way to go.

Surprisingly, a Shadoo was standing on the platform, but all it took was Chalk to send it flying off the platform with a simple swing of his paintbrush. He stood proudly for a moment before taking another bridge to the right. There was actually a chest there that contained coins.

"Coins? What a worthless reward!" Chalk spat, tossing the coins away, only to have Nazuchi quickly catch them.

"You for real?! This is CURRENCY! You don't throw away currency!" Nazuchi exclaimed. "Do you ever think before doing something?!"

"Beats me," Chalk shrugged, crossing back to the previous section and going forward instead. Nazuchi managed to follow right before the bridge fell. They had to take a bridge to the right and then one down to go the right way. They ended up running into a Desert Brawler, which the two heroes teamed up against to easily win the fight.

They found themselves going up, since they could no longer move to the right and went forward again so they could take the left direction. The next bridge forward was where the chest was.

"Whew… We're pretty close." Nazuchi smiled. "Let's just grab that key before things get bad."

The two made a run across the bridge and got to the chest to collect a Ruins Key. When the bridge reappeared, they ran back to the previous platform. The only problem at this point was going back.

"Backtracking time!" Chalk declared, making his way back.

"Hold on! Wait up!"

* * *

**Previous room-**

Chalk kicked the door open into the large room again and approached the two other doors. Nazuchi walked out of the door as well, except he appeared more exhausted and filled with less energy than Chalk.

"Yeesh… What will it take for you to slow down?" Nazuchi wheezed, leaning against the statue of Sandstorm in order to rest.

"Yo, Naz! There's a problem here!" Chalk shouted, banging the key against the northern door. "I'm trying to unlock this door, but it's not working!"

"You're not supposed to bang it, Chalk. That goes in the keyhole, remember?"

"I tried that. It wouldn't fit." the gray puffball explained, trying to fit it in the keyhole. "See? Not working."

Nazuchi stood up and walked over to Chalk to take the key from him. He put it in the keyhole and tried unlocking it, but to no avail. "Well, looks like this isn't the right key. We'll try the other door then."

Before approaching the left door, a projectile barely missed them and hit the wall. Turning around, the two noticed a Shadoo and a Desert Brawler standing on top of the statue.

_**"****Don't try leaving, 'cause you'll only end up being toast!" **_the Shadoo grinned deviously.

"Well we'll see about that!" Nazuchi shouted back, firing a light Sword Beam in their direction. The two enemies quickly jumped off the statue, which surprisingly didn't get destroyed. Nevertheless, the Shadoo and Desert Brawler charged – only to get splattered with yellow paint.

Chalk smirked as he twirled his paintbrush and let the two enemies become paralyzed. "They're all yours now, Nazdoomp!"

"Ummmm… Thank you, Chalk…" the blonde boy began to store enough power and fired a light Sword Beam at both. The Shadoo instantly disintegrated, while the Desert Brawler was barely standing. Chalk bonked the enemy in the head to take care of it. With that out of the way, they went to the left door and unlocked it with the Ruins Key.

There didn't appear to be much around, to their disappointment. However, there was a hole in the wall up ahead that looked big enough to crawl through. There was also a large diagram on the right wall of some sort of maze. Nazuchi and Chalk approached the diagram first and took a good look at it.

"Hmmmmm… Well, if I'm correct, that hole should lead us into some sort of maze… I wonder if it involves crawling?" Nazuchi pondered over these thoughts while Chalk squinted at the diagram.

"How're we supposed to remember this? Can't we just take this diagram?" Chalk reached for the diagram and attempted to grab it, but all he received was a shock. "Well, I guess not…"

"I'm guessing these guys knew we'd be here… There ALWAYS has to be a Plan B… Bummer. I guess we just have to remember the diagram through memory."

Nazuchi walked over to the hole in the wall and proceeded to crawl through. It was tight, but thankfully not too tight. There ended up being two ways to go when they crawled further. The left ended up leading them into a dead end, so the right way was, well, the right way.

They found themselves turning left and then left again to come out of the maze, to their relief. However, there were a couple of saw blades buzzing from the left wall to the right. There were about three of them, and they were moving at a surprisingly moderate pace. However, the two were left a bit nervous.

"Uhhhhh… Say, Chalk, why don't you go first?" Nazuchi suggested, shoving the gray puffball over to the deathtrap.

"Nah, nah… You're older than me. You go!" Chalk advised, walking behind Nazuchi and pushing him away from him.

"No no! I don't mind you leading! Feel free to go first!"

"You're definitely better and braver than me! You go!"

"No, you!"

"No! You!"

"No! You—Wait, what the…"

Ironically, the two had ended up pushing each other past the saw blades and at the end of the hallway. They now stood in front of a chest, safe from any saw blades.

Nazuchi looked a little puzzled. "How did we…?"

"Who cares? We got a key!" Chalk cheered, kicking the chest open and holding the key above. "Now all we need to do is go…back…"

"Go right ahead," Nazuchi sighed, starting to shove Chalk back by the hole, and soon the two were pushing each other toward the hole.

* * *

**One moment later-**

"Whew! What a relief to be out of there!" the blonde boy let out a sigh as he and Chalk returned to the large room, now covered in some dirt left around the area. Nazuchi brushed the dirt off his blonde hair and hat before walking over to the final locked door. But of course…

"Two Desert Lancers?" Chalk gawked. "Well this'll be exciting!"

The first Desert Lancer began to charge toward Nazuchi. He managed to hold his sword in front of him sideways to block the attack, but the Desert Lancer tried to push him back when its spear made contact with his sword. Obviously Nazuchi was struggling, but he managed to push the Desert Lancer enough to leave it open. That's when he fired a light arrow into its chest and finished it off with a sword slice.

Chalk had a much easier time with the remaining Desert Lancer. Bonking its head left it dazed, and soon Chalk was painting like crazy on the enemy. Using white paint froze it, and then the gray puffball shattered the Desert Lancer with another bonk.

With the enemies out of the way, they proceeded to the final locked door and unlocked it. However, what they saw through the door left them a little surprised. It was a simple hallway with a couple of hieroglyphics ranging from Shadoos and even one of Sandstorm. There were also small, yellow lizards with blue shells called Buzzy Beetles crawling around the floor and ceiling.

"OK… So we've got hieroglyphics in this strange hallway… Interesting, yet unfitting for a place made of marble…" Nazuchi commented.

"This is all there is here? Man, this is going to be easy!" Chalk declared, walking past the Buzzy Beetles and past a few hieroglyphics of Shadoos and Sandstorms. Nazuchi remained calm and followed, but he noticed a Shadoo from the wall pop out and sneak behind Chalk.

"Chalk! Watch out!"

Chalk quickly turned around and saw the depiction of the Shadoo known as a Mural Shadoo standing before him. It let out a hiss before getting beaten down by Chalk's paintbrush. It seemed a lot weaker than a normal Shadoo, strangely.

One of the Mural Sandstorms popped out of the wall, but it hardly seemed to be a threat when Nazuchi gave it a good kick, destroying it instantly. "Strange… These enemies are so weak. I guess that makes things better!"

They continued their way through the hall until they were met with a dead end. However, there was a sign waiting for them, which read:

_The red eye shall lead._

"That's it? Nothing else? This stinks!" Chalk pouted. "Where can we find a red eye?!"

"Hmmmmm…" Nazuchi studied the walls and the hieroglyphics. There was one thing he noticed out of place, though. There was a depiction of Sandstorm with red eyes. "Hey, maybe this might be it! But this wall appears solid…"

Pulling out a bomb, Nazuchi placed it in front of the wall and immediately took cover before it blew up. A hole was created through the wall and leading them to a glimmering red light.

It surprisingly led them to an even larger room with a red sky, as if they were outside. They were now standing on what appeared to be a giant hand resembling the Shadow King's. Looking at what was below, there was sand and a couple of platforms. There were even a lot of enemies lingering around as well. But that was not really what caught their attention.

There was a large chest standing in front of them.

"Hmmmmm? I wonder what this is?" Nazuchi wondered, opening the chest. Inside, he discovered a pair of silver boots with a single blue stripe resembling a lightning bolt. Touching them gave Nazuchi a slight shock. "Yeesh! These are a bit shocking!"

"What are those?" Chalk asked.

"Well, they appear to be called Platinum Boots, from what I can see… I think they're around my size! I'll put them on right now!"

Nazuchi put on the Platinum Boots and suddenly felt a surge within his body. When he took a single step, a small trail of electricity was left behind that faded away in a slight second. "Hmmmmmm… Looks like these boots have given me a strange ability… Perhaps this will be helpful in our quest?"

"Beats me! They sure do look cool, though! I wanna see what they can do!"

"OK…" Nazuchi decided to run out of the hallway, and he noticed he was moving a little faster than before. Sure, it wasn't lightning speed, but it was certainly something that might come in handy. Chalk followed him out of the hallway and back into the large room.

With all the keys, the two were unsure of where else to go. Thankfully, there weren't any enemies in the way, but hitting the Sandstorm statue was hardly doing much. However, there was something encrypted in the statue that the two had never bothered looking at.

_Only the lightning crash can destroy this statue._

"Lightning crash? What the heck?" Nazuchi gawked. "Seriously, this writing sure is a pain to figure out. Maybe I have to run into it?"

He took a couple of steps back before charging into the statue. This only made him bump into the statue and fall over on his back. Nazuchi tried again, but this time he jumped and let his boots make contact with the statue. A surge of electricity burst into the statue and destroyed it. A staircase leading down to a new path was revealed.

"So there was something hidden under here," Chalk realized. "Cool."

"Looks like it. Let's check it out." Nazuchi suggested, going down the stairs, with Chalk following. Once they were gone, however, the door behind slowly opened.

"I think I heard some voices in here!" the figure exclaimed, walking into the large room. "Man, look at the size of this room! It's huge!"

"It looks like there used to be something here…" the second figure noted, looking down at the statue's remains. "Someone must've broken it."

"Well I'm sure those losers are trying to get that Crystal Star before us! It has to be them for sure!"

"What makes you think that?" the third figure asked.

"Because… I just know! Let's go follow them, OK?"

"Fine…" the fourth figure groaned. "We don't have much of a choice, since they could lead us to the star…"

It ended up leading them to the very large room they witnessed, except they were not standing on a hand. After taking a few steps, they turned around and noticed they had come out of a doorway through the statue's throne.

The platform they stood on was not made of marble, however. It appeared very old, much like the statue of the Shadow King, which stated his name on a sign nearby. Nazuchi had heard a lot about the Shadow King, but this wasn't really the appearance he expected.

"That guy looks chubby!" Chalk commented. "This is what their king is like?"

"Well, I guess kings tend to be a little on the chubby side with those mustaches," Nazuchi shrugged. "I suppose it's fitting… I wonder what his queen is like? Hopefully we'll find out and stop her too!"

They turned away from the giant statue and made their way to the platform's edge. There were a couple of other platforms in the quicksand, and jumping on one made some of them sink. The platforms appeared to be remains of previous architecture such as broken pillars and floors.

"Careful, Chalk… You don't want to stay on here for too long. These platforms are bound to sink in a matter of seconds…" the blonde boy warned before pondering for a moment. "You know, I wonder how these new boots will work for something like this…"

At that point, Nazuchi started to run and jump from each broken platform. It felt like he was skipping from platform to platform very easily – something that would have been challenging for him in the past. A smile appeared on his face as he reached a bigger, unsinkable platform.

Chalk decided to make things easier for him by creating an icy road with his white paint. This allowed him to slide over the quicksand and over to Nazuchi, who was looking surprised by his ability.

"Wait… How did you…? …Actually, don't bother answering. That can help us."

They would've proceeded if there were three Rockos and two Desert Lancers on the same platform. What made things worse was that they spotted them already and were coming their way. For Nazuchi, this felt like an opportunity to use his new boots. Running up to the closest Desert Lancer, he managed to deliver a kick to its stomach and leave it paralyzed for a brief moment. Nazuchi took this opportunity to finish off the enemy before sliding to knock down the other Desert Lancer.

Chalk started off by shooting blue paint at the three Rockos, leaving them weakened already. He then swung very swiftly at them and managed to cut them in half thanks to the frozen blade Chalk created from his paintbrush. This managed to knock them into the quicksand, along with the remaining Desert Lancer that got kicked away by Nazuchi.

"Say… These boots really are helpful!" Nazuchi smiled. "I'm pretty shocked, honestly!"

Continuing on, the two made their way across more sinking platform in the same procedure as before. When they finally reached the end, they saw a sealed door and also a stump that appeared very out-of-place, which seemed to stick out of the floor.

Chalk walked up to the door and attempted to open it, but it didn't budge. "Well, looks like this isn't working… Got any plans?"

"Well…" Nazuchi began, eyeing the stump nearby. "Maybe this stump has something to do with this door?"

While Chalk continued to bang on the door, Nazuchi climbed onto the stump. He tried to bring his feet down on the stump, but it was hardly doing much. However, when he jumped a bit higher, he pushed his feet to a greater limit and created a powerful Lightning Stomp that managed to drive the stump into the ground. Nazuchi blinked for a moment as he looked down at his boots.

"Whoa… That was impressive."

Chalk stopped banging on the door as it opened. "Hey! I guess my banging skills came to use after all! I gotta learn to do this more!"

Nazuchi was about to respond by raising a finger, but he decided to stop and follow Chalk through the doorway. Surprisingly, they found themselves in a narrow, ruined hallway with a section of the floor being rather broken. It appeared to be a lightest brown color.

"Yeesh… Why is this area so old? Not a very nice architecture." Chalk commented, walking through the hallway. "This place could really use some redecorating!"

"Yeah, I can agree," Nazuchi nodded, reaching the broken floor. There was a platform slowly coming out of the left wall, and it wasn't too far of a jump. He leaped onto it and then jumped off over the pit below to find the hallway turning to the left. There, the door was up ahead with no obstacles in the way.

…Or so he thought. Smaller Thwomps known as Thwimps were jumping in the air and moving as well. One even went over both Nazuchi and Chalk and were lucky not to get flattened. They decided to take things slowly and waited for the Thwimps to move over them in order to make a run for the door.

Going through the door only led them to a couple of staircases going down to a lower section of the ruins. Some Desert Lancers were patrolling the stairs, so both Nazuchi and Chalk were cautious and planted bombs and tried assassinating enemies without them detecting them. Only about two spotted them, but they easily took them down and reached the door at the bottom of the staircase.

Nazuchi quickly kicked the door open and were led into a medium-sized room with two doors and a pedestal that looked like something could be inserted in. Sadly, the door to the left was locked.

"Well, looks like the right door is our only option! It's the right way to go, after all." Chalk said.

"Good lord! How many times was this 'right' joke rehashed?! That's like the third or fourth time that's been done this chapter!" Nazuchi exclaimed, only to be interrupted by something glimmering in his inventory. "Hmmmmmm?"

He took out the map that happened to be glimmering at the door to their right. "The map's responding to this…"

Stepping closer to the door made the map glow brighter. "Yeah! The Crystal Star's through this door! All right!"

Opening the door, Nazuchi and Chalk discovered the room to be square-shaped with a couple of pillars ahead. There was also a statue of a female figure holding onto a green star-shaped gem. The map was definitely responding to it.

"Well that was pretty easy!" Chalk smiled, following Nazuchi to the end of the room. There were a couple of torches near the statue to help keep some light in the dull room. It hardly mattered, because the star known as the Emerald Star helped make the room glimmer a slight green.

Nazuchi snatched the Emerald Star from the statue's hands and held it above him happily. "All right! It's great we managed to retrieve one of these! And it was pretty easy to get to!"

Just as they were about to leave, the door opened, and four figures walked into the room and spotted Nazuchi carrying the Emerald Star.

"Oh, great! He's already got it!"

"Wait, what?" Nazuchi paused when he saw the four figures up ahead. "You guys? What are you doing here?"

"Gettin' the Crystal Star, what's it to ya?" Toadburt sneered.

"You mean this?" the blonde boy smirked, shaking it as if he were rubbing it in. "Well, looks like you were beat to it!"

"Hmmmm… I wonder how you were able to find this thing before us…" Goombi wondered. "There must be something a youngster such as yourself must've done…"

"We've got a map!" Chalk blurted, making everyone turn their attention to him. "Yup! We know how to get to the stars!"

"Chalk! You shouldn't have said that!" Nazuchi cried.

"So you have a map, huh?" Koopo gawked. "Well, considering that we're searching for those stars, you think you can let us borrow that?"

"Sorry, but finder's keepers. We've got the star before you."

"But do you realize how important something like that is?" Bonnie asked. "We don't believe you could be trusted with something like that. This is something that should be trusted to us."

"My town was destroyed, and if these stars are what it takes to stop the Shadow Queen, then I'm going to collect them," Nazuchi declared. "You people wouldn't understand. This is something important to Chalk and I."

"So ha!" Chalk shouted, blowing a raspberry at the four heroes.

"Man, I never knew you were such a jerk," Toadburt taunted. "Refusin' to give me the Crystal Star is pretty selfish, you know. I think we might have to resort to force to get that star from you."

"Like _you_ can even put up a fight against me," Nazuchi said with a hint of cockiness in his voice.

"As much as I don't want to agree with Toadburt, it might have to come to that," Bonnie said. "You and your friend are not responsible enough to be holding something with incredible power. Compromising doesn't seem to be working, and usually it leads to us using force. Nothing personal, of course."

"If you want to fight us for the star, then I guess we have no choice," Nazuchi said, taking his sword out. "I don't want to fight you guys either, but I certainly don't like being threatened."

"Then so it begins!" Toadburt let out a battle cry and began to run straight at Nazuchi. He tried delivering a punch, but his attack was easily blocked, allowing Nazuchi to shove him away. Despite that, Toadburt smirked and removed his cap, revealing his bald head.

"What're you going to do, attack me with your baldness?" Nazuchi snickered, soon bursting out in laughter. Chalk couldn't help but laugh as well, but Toadburt remained calm and blocked Nazuchi's sight by shoving his cap in his face. "What the… Who turned out the lights?!"

"Pbbbbbthhh! He's bald!" Chalk added, annoying Toadburt.

"Well… Ladies dig the bald ones!" Toadburt declared before looking at Chalk. "And don't think I forgot about you, you…whatever you are!"

Nazuchi managed to get the cap off his face and kick Toadburt back by the door. Seeing the Toad crash into the wall alarmed the three other heroes and got them in their fighting positions.

"Hmmmmm… So this young one does have a bit of strength in him." Goombi realized. "We should be alarmed."

Koopo grabbed his large sword from his back and unsheathed it. Bonnie also followed him, getting herself ready to cast a spell.

Seeing Koopo's sword coming in his direction left Nazuchi alarmed as he quickly jumped backwards and avoided getting hit by the giant sword. He was almost left gaping seeing the size of his sword compared to his. However, Lighten's words began to echo in his mind as he remembered something said by him.

_"The strength one has is not what matters. What truly matters is one's skill in a weapon."_

This gave him a bit more of a determined work as he placed his empty hand on his sword and managed to parry Koopo's next sword swing. While it was difficult to hold off, Koopo could notice he was surprisingly pushing him back.

"Hmmmm… I'm surprised you're actually standing up to this sword." Koopo noticed, bringing his sword back. "But you appeared to be struggling. You know you can just end this fight by giving us the star and map."

"Not gonna happen," Nazuchi retorted, swinging at Koopo, who blocked the sword. "And I'm not afraid of that big sword of yours either!"

"We'll see about that," the Koopa managed to hit Nazuchi in the head with his sword's handle, leaving him dazed. He swung at him afterward, only he hit him with the flat side of his sword. _"I don't want to leave the boy severely injured. Hurting someone young such as himself would not make myself look good…"_

But before he could get in another hit, he ended up getting sprayed with yellow paint. "What the… Aaargh! I can't move!"

Chalk twirled his paintbrush and pulled Nazuchi away from Koopo now that he couldn't move. Goombi slowly shook her head and took out a book to gather information on the two.

"That's Nazuchi, the apprentice of Lighten," Goombi started. "It says he carries a magic bow and some bombs, so it's best we watch out when we're at a far range. Getting close will make him use his sword to fight back. However, being only thirteen means he isn't fully trained, which means he is not much of a major threat. Though, those Platinum Boots can be a real threat if he uses them…"

"Hey, I was trained ever since I was six!" Nazuchi shouted, skidding back from a purple magic blast he blocked from Bonnie. "You shouldn't underestimate us, you know…"

"You could say the same thing to us," Bonnie retorted, firing another magic blast, only to have Chalk jump in and hit her in the head with his paintbrush. "Ugh! You guys should remember that there are two people here!"

Seeing this as a chance to attack, Nazuchi swung at Bonnie, but she saw the attack coming and turned transparent, making the sword phase through her. Nazuchi blinked for a moment before Toadburt managed to tackle him, though that only ended with the blonde boy throwing the Toad off and delivering a kick to his gut.

"Oof! Man, what kind of boots are those?!" Toadburt gaped, holding his gut in pain. "I don't remember boots like those being on you before. I bet you stole 'em from somewhere!"

Koopo, on the other hand, was able to shake off the paralysis and get back into action. He sprinted over to one of the pillars and managed to cut it off so he could grab a hold of it with his immense strength. The three other heroes took notice and backed away so they were not in the pillar's path.

"Whoa! How's he doing that?!" Chalk gaped, noticing the pillar coming down on the two. Nazuchi was left shocked as well, but something like that stood no chance against the Sword of Light as soon as he managed to slice a section off.

Koopo himself was even surprised. "Hmmmm… Impressive! That sword is a lot stronger than I thought, especially in your hands. However, you are starting to push me to my limit…"

"Bring it on!" Chalk taunted, leaping forward and kicking Koopo in the face, knocking him on his back. Being a Koopa, he struggled to get up. "Ha ha ha! Dude, he's having a hard time getting up!"

Before he could continue laughing, he was suddenly left frozen by one of Bonnie's spells. "That kid's attitude is almost as worse as Toadburt's…"

"You kiddin' me?!" Toadburt guffawed. "I'm so much better than him and that blonde freak! I'm even stronger too!"

"Did you even bring any weapons?" Goombi asked.

"Well… Err… No, not really…"

"Then what did you spend those coins we provided you with?!" Bonnie exclaimed, turning to Toadburt.

"These," the Toad pulled out a piece of chocolate cake and a few items such as a Thunder Rage and an Earthquake. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"You were supposed to get a weapon that isn't temporary, not some attack items and a slice of cake! Gosh, you're so stupid…"

"Anyway, let me tattle the other character," Goombi stated, searching through her Tattle book. "That is Chalk. …Huh, it says here that where he originates is unknown. Strange… Aside from that, he carries the Spectral Paintbrush, which has strange powers depending on the type of paint used. For example, red paint means he can set enemies aflame, while white paint can freeze. Chalk can also fire from a far range, so I suggest we beware of that weapon. Though, him being a goofball might mean we have an advantage."

"Hold on a sec…" Toadburt started. "You people are criticizing me for fighting? What about you, Goomba hag? You're just looking through that stupid book of yours!"

Goombi gave him a look of disapproval before jumping in and headbonking Nazuchi in the head. Though, that didn't do too much but leave him dazed. Bonnie was about to cast another spell, but Toadburt stepped in instead and threw his Earthquake item onto the ground. The room began to shake violently, and Nazuchi found himself being knocked onto the ground. Toadburt approached him and looked down at the defeated hero.

"So, what's it going to be, huh?" Toadburt smirked, feeling a sense if victory. "You honestly believed you could take us on! I bet Lilia's looking down at you and shaking her head. I toldja she's not good enough for you! No one likes losers like you anyway!"

Hearing the insults being thrown at him so easily, Nazuchi felt his hands slowly ball up into fists, with his right hand clenching his sword tightly. Using whatever energy he had in him, he pushed himself up and kicked Toadburt toward the wall to leave a huge mark and make the Toad dazed.

"Don't you EVER say something like that again!" Nazuchi roared, using his sword to thaw Chalk out. "Come on, Chalk… We're not giving up just yet!"

"Gotcha!" Chalk smirked, pointing his paintbrush at the four heroes. "We ain't backing down just yet!"

Swinging his sword, Nazuchi fired three light Sword Beams toward the four heroes. Koopo (who had joined the other three a moment ago) brought his large sword up to block the attacks, but it only knocked him back to the wall.

"You OK, Koopo?" Bonnie asked, helping the Koopa up.

"Yeah… Nothing big." Koopo assured, turning to the two. "Listen, I do believe it would be smart to end this fight now and give us what we need. It's the more grown-up thing to do anyway."

"You're still not convincing us," Nazuchi stated, getting ready to defend against any attack. "I believe my reasons are much more valid than yours."

"But it's too dangerous to hold something like that!" Goombi lectured. "We can't have young people such as yourselves risking your lives! You probably aren't strong enough to-"

"Forget about it," Toadburt interrupted. "They ain't listening. We'll just put them in their place!"

"How about I put you in your place as soon as I kick your butt!" Nazuchi shouted, throwing a bomb in his direction. Bonnie managed to catch the bomb with her magic and send it flying back at Nazuchi and Chalk. It exploded and sent them flying back to the statue. With them open, Goombi charged and proceeded to headbonk them. She managed to hit Nazuchi, but Chalk quickly got up and whacked her with his paintbrush. He painted her blue to leave her soggy as well.

Chalk went after Bonnie next, using his paint attacks to paint her red. Being a Boo, Bonnie turned invisible to avoid it. The downside to this was that the red paint got on Toadburt and set him on fire.

"WAAAAH! I'M HOT!" Toadburt cried, rolling on the ground to get the flames off. Bonnie tried to use a water spell, but having him move was a bit of a problem.

"Hold still, you idiot!" Bonnie grumbled until she felt herself get struck by Nazuchi's boot, leading herself to get knocked into Toadburt and scorched as well. This did very little to her, as her water spell cleansed her of the flames, along with Toadburt.

Before Koopo could make a hit on Nazuchi, Chalk managed to tackle him and make him hide in his shell. This gave Nazuchi a chance to kick him straight into the three others and leave them knocked on their backs and dazed.

"Wow… We actually beat them!" Nazuchi gaped, looking at the four knocked down heroes. "Look, I never wanted to fight you guys, but threatening us wasn't the best idea…"

"And you got beaten by two people that are a lot younger than you!" Chalk laughed. "Who's the professionals now?!"

"Ungh… No, we ain't done yet." Toadburt wheezed, getting up and brushing himself. "Aw, man! Look at me!"

"Look at _us!_" Bonnie exclaimed.

"That ain't important! My cape's ruined!" the Toad pointed to his cape, which was ripped up and covered in dirt. "This cape cost me a fortune! …But aside from that, I think we've got one more trick up our sleeve! Behold!"

Toadburt took out the glimmering Diamond Star and held it up. It seemed to be reacting to the Emerald Star's power too. "This thing apparently has a power of its own. When we use this on you, you'll be history!"

The Diamond Star started to spin around and grow bigger. The four heroes were left a bit confused at first, but they chose to get on it as soon as it grew to a large size. The star started to strike the ground, creating a large tremor that lifted both Nazuchi and Chalk off the ground each time the star hit the ground.

"WAAAH! What in the world?!" Nazuchi cried while in the air.

"Yeesh! What kind of move is this?!" Chalk exclaimed.

As soon as the attack finished, both Nazuchi and Chalk were lying on the ground in defeat, and the four heroes slowly approached them. Toadburt looked down at the blonde boy again with a smirk.

"So, how does it feel to taste defeat?" Toadburt asked, putting his hands on his hips. "I can taste victory, and it tastes wonderful!"

"You two are obviously too young to be fighting people like us," Goombi remarked.

"Though, I do believe you guys have potential, considering how much of a fight you put up against us," Koopo complimented. "But at the same time, your work was a bit sloppy."

"Sloppy?" gawked Nazuchi.

"You and your friend didn't appear to work together that often, nor were you two backing each other up mostly like us. The best way to win a fight is to work as a team. It's a sign of a professional fighter. Though I will admit, your fighting skills aren't half bad. It just needs…some tweaking."

Nazuchi and Chalk finally got themselves up and tried to wipe off the dirt on their bodies. They were covered in a few bruises from that massive attack. When they looked back up at the four heroes, they saw Bonnie hold her stubby hand out.

"So, will you give us the map and Emerald Star?" Bonnie asked. "We promise to take good care of it."

Before Nazuchi could answer, Chalk walked up to her and gave her the Emerald Star and map. "Here, you might as well."

"Wait, Chalk!" Nazuchi cried.

"Awesome," Toadburt smirked, snatching the Emerald Star from Bonnie. "We've got the star!"

"I guess we might as well go," Goombi stated. "We'll leave the Desert Tablet to you two."

"And just so you know, if you try to do something like this toward us again, we can guarantee it won't be as easy for you," Bonnie stated. "We went pretty easy on you, so consider yourself lucky."

"But for now, good luck on your journey," Koopo said as they finally left. However, Toadburt decided to peak his head out from the door and stick his tongue at them, angering Nazuchi.

"Chalk, how could you?" Nazuchi guffawed, turning to Chalk. "Honestly, I didn't want to just give the star to them like that! We got it fair and square!"

He noticed Chalk was smirking. "What're you smirking about? This isn't anything to laugh at! We just lost the map AND the Crystal Star to them!"

"Check your inventory," Chalk snickered.

Nazuchi gave him a look of uncertainty and took out two items that surprised him. "Wait… I still have the star and map?! But how did you…?"

"Red herrings, of course," the gray puffball answered, taking out his paintbrush dripping with green and brown paint. "Made 'em while they paid no attention to me!"

"That… You…" Nazuchi's shocked look changed to a smile. "Chalk… I'm glad you did that. I also never knew you were so sneaky."

"Yep, that's me all right! So, are we going to go after Sandstorm now?"

"Yeah. We might as well. Let's get out of here first and into that other room before they realize we duped them."

They quickly exited the room and returned to the main room in the area. To their surprise, they discovered a Ruins Key lying on the ground. Nazuchi picked it up and used it to unlock the door into a long hallway.

"Well that key worked. Very nice." Nazuchi smiled until he saw what was ahead. "Uh oh… A puzzle."

"I see blocks," Chalk stated, noticing different types of blocks and holes on the ground. "I see a lime-green, light gray, brown, dark gray, black, and white block. And I see around the hole a color similar to those."

"Kinda reminds me of a puzzle I saw before with these colors… Well, we might as well put the blocks in their correct hole."

The two began to push the six blocks in their correct hole. It only took about five minutes to complete, since they had to be aware of the four heroes if they ever returned. All of that ended up triggering a chest to appear at the end of the hallway. Inside was a brown, sandy-looking orb.

"Hmmmmm… Hey, maybe this is what we need to place in that pedestal we saw before!" Nazuchi deduced. "Let's go do that right now!"

They exited the room and returned to the previous one. Indeed there was a spot for the pedestal, and the orb happened to fit in perfectly. This caused the room to shake slightly and cause a section near the pedestal to slowly descend and create a staircase.

"Cool," Chalk smiled. "Let's check it out."

They made their way down the staircase and noticed the architecture slowly getting worse and browner. There was very little light as well with the exception of the torches that helped guide them. Two other sets of stairs were there as well that they had to walk down, but no enemies were in sight.

"Wow… Talk about dirty and disgusting." Nazuchi commented, looking at the area around them. "This place is getting more ruined by the minute!"

"If Sandstorm has some kind of plan, I think we can ruin it with ease!" Chalk smirked.

"Oh, for the love of… Actually, never mind."

After reaching the last set of stairs, they had come across a much larger door than what they had seen before. There was also a chest containing some food they ate to replenish their health. It tasted just fine, to their surprise.

"If I'm correct, then Sandstorm must be through this door," Nazuchi deduced. "Let's be ready, Chalk. If we stop him, this desert will finally see the light from these guys."

"I'm definitely ready," Chalk declared, holding up his paintbrush. "That guy tried to get in our way with that sandstorm, and there's no way we're going to let him get away with it! Let's go show him who's boss!"

Using his paintbrush, Chalk bashed the door open and headed through. Nazuchi followed afterward, and soon the door closed behind them.

* * *

**Oh, geez... I realized there were a lot of puns in this chapter, and many of them were not intentional. XP**

**At first, I wasn't so sure of the idea, but I thought it would be interesting if both Nazuchi and Chalk ended up fighting against the four heroes and even compete against them to get the Crystal Stars. I think it's a lot more interesting than what I had originally thought of.**

**I guess this dungeon area could've had a bit more, but I'm fine with it. Also, there will be plenty of more upgrades in this story, and not just for Nazuchi. There was one for Chalk in the previous chapter for those who chose to ignore that. But aside from that, this area will soon be coming to an end, because next chapter is up against the boss!**


	14. Sir Sandstorm: A Sandy Battle

Chapter 14: Sir Sandstorm: A Sandy Battle

Looking around them, Nazuchi and Chalk discovered the floor was filled with mostly sand, and above them was a ceiling with some sort of vertical line across. The room itself was as big as the room where Froodtail was fought, but it was large enough to have at least a battle. Another thing of interest was the depictions on the wall. They mostly had to do with sand or sand tornados. Unlike the previous room, there were lanterns all over the walls of the circular room, giving off a great amount of light.

"Well, looks like we stumbled upon an interesting room…" Nazuchi trailed, gaping at the room. "Sure, it's not the biggest room I've been in, but it does look pretty nice."

"Good thing there's light in here," Chalk smiled.

"It doesn't look like anyone's in here, though…" Both saw no one in their sight, not even on the floor. "Well that's a disappointment, but I suggest we search this room."

"There's no need to do that."

A small, sandy tornado formed in the center of the room, which began to pull Nazuchi and Chalk toward it. Before they even got close, the tornado disappeared, revealing Sir Sandstorm to be inside.

"So you're the two heroes after my Desert Tablet, is that true?" the sandy knight asked. "…Actually, no need to answer that question. I already know you are the ones. You were lucky to get out of that mess where I was. The Shadoos aren't exactly the smartest bulbs out there."

"You mean those idiots that ran into us?" Chalk wondered.

"Correct," Sandstorm drew his brown, curved sword streaming with sand, pointed it at the two, and he also adjusted his sombrero. "My king ordered me to take care of you guys, and if that is what he wishes, then I will do what I must."

"Just following orders, huh?" Nazuchi let out a sigh. "Typical minion… Just doing it because his boss told him to do so. Don't you even think for yourself?"

"And do you only learn something because your mentor told you so?"

"…OK, I get what you mean, but that's completely different than what you're doing!" the blonde boy clenched his fist and drew his Sword of Light. "I mean, look at the desert! Does it look nice with red skies? …Then again, I think deserts suck!"

"If that is what you think, then I will not object against your opinion," Sandstorm lowered his brown sword and also drew his orange one. "The desert is what I'd consider paradise to me. The lovely, barren landscape is what I love to see when looking off at the distance. This world is something I care about deeply. Perhaps you would understand if there's something you care about."

"Meh… Let's cut it with the talking." Chalk suggested, getting his paintbrush ready. "Let's fight!"

Sandstorm could only shake his head mentally at Chalk's ignorance, but he stood on guard. "If that is your wish, then I shall grant it. If you manage to best me, then perhaps I will give you what you deserve!"

"All right…" Nazuchi said, keeping a firm grip on his sword. "Let's go!"

Chalk made the first move and charged straight at Sandstorm. He brought his paintbrush on his head, but he noticed the attack was quickly blocked by Sandstorm's orange sword. Rather than slicing him, Sandstorm shoved Chalk away and knocked him back with a kick from his leather boot, causing the puffball to slide across the sandy floor.

"Next time, think before you attack, little puffball," Sandstorm scoffed, his orange sword surrounded in sand. "Let me show you how I use the sand in battle!"

Standing back, Sandstorm swung one of his swords and fired a small, sandy whirlwind that flew in their direction. It managed to catch them and send them flying in the air until they hit the ground. Sandstorm sheathed his two swords afterward.

He picked up some sand on the floor and tossed it above him. For both Nazuchi and Chalk, all they could do was watch his performance.

"That's it? He just threw sand in the air like that?" Chalk snickered. "HA! Good one! What's it going to do, make it rain sand?"

Suddenly, the room started to get very windy. Sand began to fly everywhere in the room in the heroes' direction. They both covered their eyes to shield them from the small grains of sand, but that was not enough to keep them in place. The wind only got stronger, and soon they were off their feet and were in the air.

Unaffected by the wind, Sandstorm created a sandy whirlwind around his feet to reach the heroes and strike them both with his sword a couple of times before stopping the wind and letting them fall to the ground. Sandstorm's whirlwind disappeared, allowing him to safely land on the floor.

Nazuchi and Chalk slowly got up, noticing the damage they had taken from Sandstorm.

"Man, that was intense!" Chalk cried. "How'd he do that?"

"By being one with the desert, I am able to control the sand and environment around me in a desert," Sandstorm stated. "You two obviously are lacking in that compared to me."

"One with the desert? You're such a weirdo…"

Chalk noticed Sandstorm dashing toward him and ready to strike him with his weapons. He took action and put his paintbrush up to defend against the attack. Sandstorm smirked under his scarf, seeing this as an advantage, but his eyes soon widened when he received a blow to the back of the head. Not to mention a little shock as well!

Nazuchi backed away from Sandstorm before he could attack him, but he found himself paralyzed after Chalk finished painting his back yellow.

"How did you…?"

"Well, you were obviously distracted," Nazuchi explained, giving him a smug look. "You focused mostly on Chalk here, and once he had you occupied, I managed to make the move and- Wait, why am I telling you this?!"

"Who cares about that? He's paralyzed!" Chalk laughed, turning back to Sandstorm, only to make his expression change. "…Huh? He's gone!"

Nazuchi felt uneasy at the moment as he heard something behind him. He quickly turned, only to be forced away by Sandstorm's palm. A large amount of sand acting as a beam threw him and Chalk at one of the room's walls.

"Oh, geez! I've got sand on my tongue!" Nazuchi spat, now on his knees after the attack. He continued to let out a couple of more coughs as Sandstorm began to approach.

"I suppose I should mention that the Desert Tablet can do more than just restore each land back to the light," Sandstorm stated, holding the Desert Tablet in his hand. "It can strengthen the holder using it and grant them a wish."

"This guy's just using the tablet to use attacks like that! He's a phony!" Chalk scoffed.

"Though it may seem like an easy answer, that is not the case. I chose not to use this tablet's power. I'd rather fight as myself than use something like this."

"Hmmmm… Honorable, huh? Interesting…" Nazuchi commented.

Sandstorm put the tablet away and got in a fighting stance. "Seeing what you pulled off, I can see you both have some potential. But, can you dodge THIS?"

He stabbed the ground, causing sand to fire upward below both Nazuchi and Chalk. They formed into giant hands and grabbed the two by their feet. Nazuchi tried stabbing at the hand, but it hardly did much.

"You can try attacking, but it's not going to do you much help. Sand isn't something you can simply destroy!"

Nazuchi tried stabbing at it a couple more times, but he eventually gave up and felt the hand squeeze his feet tighter. He tried pulling himself out, but his hands only went through the sand itself.

"Gaaack! How can we get out of here?!" Nazuchi winced, stabbing at the hand more.

"I'm suddenly getting thirsty as well," Chalk realized, making him get his paintbrush out and shoot blue paint into his mouth. Some even dripped down onto the hand grabbing a hold of him. This caused a small portion of the hand to stop moving for a bit.

_"Wet sand…" _Nazuchi thought, a light bulb now appearing on his head. _"I think I might know what we can do here!"_

"Hey, Chalk! Stop drinking that paint and shoot it at the hand!"

"Hmmmmm?" Sandstorm looked suspicious as Chalk obeyed and painted the hand blue, causing the hand to become stiff and more solid. Nazuchi drew his bow and fired an ice arrow to leave it frozen solid, giving Chalk a chance to shatter it with a tap of his paintbrush, freeing him in the process. Sandstorm was certainly not pleased.

He tried firing another sand beam at Chalk, but he easily countered it by shooting blue paint and stopping the attack. Afterward, he helped free Nazuchi from the remaining sandy hand in the same procedure as before.

"Impressive… It's not rare for someone to get out of that." complimented Sandstorm. "This could be one of my greatest battles yet."

He let more sand rise in the air in front of him, and by pointing at Nazuchi, the sand began to come flying his way. The attack was easily dodged with a single roll, giving Nazuchi a chance to jump in front of Sandstorm and strike him with a sword swing. But before he could attack again, Sandstorm easily got away by teleporting through a sandy whirlwind.

Another whirlwind appeared, this time it was at the far end of the room. Sandstorm began to swing his swords and fire smaller whirlwinds in their direction. Chalk took this opportunity to spray blue paint on them, but it hardly did much.

"The sand is not what is creating these whirlwinds," Sandstorm stated, disappointing Chalk. "Water will not solve your conundrum."

"Guess we're just gonna have to avoid them," Nazuchi declared, moving clear from the whirlwinds. Chalk finally decided to do the same thing, but unlike him, he chose to jump over them and fire blue paint at Sandstorm, leaving him drenched. This gave Nazuchi the opportunity to fire an ice arrow and leave him frozen.

Of course, Sandstorm easily broke through the icy barrier. "Not bad… But I've trained enough to be able to get through something like that."

Gulping, Nazuchi dove out of the way when a wave of sand rise in front of him after Sandstorm swung his sword upward at the sand. Though, he failed to see Chalk paint him red and leave him scorched. The flames, however, were easy for him to put up, though it had done some damage to his scarf.

"Hey, you've got those swords! Why not actually fight with them?" Chalk taunted. "Unless you're…_chicken!_"

"If that is what you wish, then that is what I shall do," Sandstorm gripped his two swords and began to spin in Chalk's direction. The attack sent him flying back into the corner, but it didn't stop him from shooting blue paint at Sandstorm. The swords bounced it back and made the paint hit Nazuchi instead, who was now drenched. Thankfully, his boots didn't give him a shock.

Sandstorm brought his attention to Nazuchi and dashed toward him. He swung one sword at him, which Nazuchi easily parried. His second sword was parried as well, and with both of them struggling to push each other back, they both tried to use their foot to kick each other. This ended up sending both flying into the walls.

Chalk ran over to Sandstorm to hit him with his paintbrush, but the sand warrior was quick to get up and brought his two swords down on Chalk. Thankfully, he held his paintbrush up and blocked both swords.

However, Sandstorm sensed something behind him and moved one of his swords away from Chalk to block Nazuchi's sword. Now he was left in between two heroes with his two swords holding them off.

"Hmmmm… I have to say, I'm a little impressed with how you try to fight me." Sandstorm commanded, struggling to hold them off. "It makes the battle feel more interesting. However, I fear that that won't be enough against me."

His two swords were surrounded in a sandy mist that soon turned into small whirlwinds. This caused both Nazuchi and Chalk to get knocked back. Despite that, Chalk had managed to shoot yellow paint at Sandstorm to paralyze him, while Nazuchi managed to shoot him with a light arrow. But even then, Sandstorm didn't appear to flinch from the arrow.

"Wow… I guess we know we're fighting a boss when an arrow doesn't make him flinch." Nazuchi gaped, standing back up. Sandstorm was still paralyzed, so he got a bomb out and rolled it under him, while Kirby left him poisoned with his green paint.

Once the paralysis wore off, Sandstorm felt himself get sent flying into the wall behind him. It didn't take long for him to get up, and it also didn't take long for him to block some of Nazuchi's arrows and Chalk's paint.

Taking out an antidote, Sandstorm gulped it down to cure himself of the poison. "The way you work together reminds me of two companions I had worked with many years ago in this land… A strategy like that was similar to what they had, and it was used against a single opponent."

"Wait, you worked with other people before?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Yes. It was before this land had become covered in darkness. They had fallen to the Shadow King, while he had spared me and let me join him when I was left injured. And now I am here facing you two…"

"If that king killed your friends, then why did you decide to join him?" Chalk asked. "I'm sure you wouldn't like him for forcing you to join his side! You'd probably want us to have the tablet and go after him!"

"It was only because I was weak back then," Sandstorm explained, gripping his right sword tightly. "I was a fool back then, and if I tried to rebel, I would suffer severe consequences, which is why I can't lose to you two!"

He let his swords attach to each other, creating a double-bladed sword. "So be prepared to face my power!"

Raising his swords, Sandstorm teleported to the two and spun his swords around, creating a large, sandy cyclone that managed to lift both Nazuchi and Chalk off their feet. Even Sandstorm was off the ground as he spun his blades again, causing the two heroes to be sent flying into the ceiling and then plummeting onto the sand, which saved them from any serious injuries.

When the two got up, Sandstorm had already made his next move and started spinning around to form a sandy whirlwind. This whirlwind began to chase after them, and all Nazuchi and Chalk could do was run. They tried firing their projectiles at it, but none of them appeared to work.

The whirlwind had gotten to them and knocked them back onto their backs. Sandstorm got out of the whirlwind afterward and detached his two swords. He swung them upward at the two to launch them into the air, and then he went up to them by using the sand's power to jump higher.

Both Nazuchi and Chalk were able to regain control of themselves in midair and blocked Sandstorm's sword swings. Chalk had managed to hit Sandstorm in the chest with the bottom of his paintbrush, while Nazuchi managed to strike him with a flaming slash, sending him flying into the sand. The two heroes managed to land on their feet afterward, with Nazuchi charging up a Sword Beam.

"All right, this is it, Sandstorm!" Nazuchi declared. "Take this!"

He swung his sword, causing his Sword Beam to fire toward Sandstorm. He ended up countering it by firing a Sword Beam of his own – only this one had more of a sandy appearance. Both collided, and an explosion emitted between the two.

Chalk decided to make his move and jumped through the smoke to tackle Sandstorm and paint him blue to leave him drenched. He also tried painting him red, but Sandstorm had already thrown him off and struck him to the ground with a sword swing.

"You know, coming off as silly will not help you in a battle," Sandstorm noted, looking down at Chalk. "If you took your fighting more seriously, then I can assure you that you might be much stronger…"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Chalk asked, slowly getting up and trying to hit Sandstorm, only for him to block his attack.

"The way you act. It does come off as very immature."

"I'm eight! What'd you expect?"

"True, but when I was eight, I was more serious with my training. I also made sure my comrades were safe. Do you not care about what's around you?"

"Of course I care about the people!" Chalk cried, pushing Sandstorm back with a kick. "But you know, sometimes you shouldn't take life so seriously! You need to have a little bit of fun in your life, which is something I ENJOY!"

"Hmmmmm… I understand what you mean. However, there are some things in life that must be taken seriously, such as your quest, and also helping your friends…"

Chalk thought about it for a moment, but there was nothing he could come up with to speak to him, so he scorched him with red paint. Sandstorm had quickly gotten the flames off him, feeling that his words were probably not going to get to Chalk. He ended up knocking him away with a sand beam.

Of course, he wasn't expecting a bomb to appear below him and blow up, leaving his scarf a little scathed in the process, along with his sombrero. Looking up, he saw Nazuchi give him a smirk.

"Looks like someone's almost finished," Nazuchi noted. "So are you going to give up?"

"You aren't looking too good either," Sandstorm replied, noticing the bruises and dirt left on his face, hair and hat. "You managed to bring me this far… While I do commend you for doing so, this is where it ends!"

He attached his two swords once again and began to spin them. Rather than a cyclone appearing, a large sandstorm was brewed up in the entire room and began to make both Nazuchi and Chalk spin around the room like crazy while being lifted off the ground.

"Whoa, geez! This is crazy!" Chalk cried. "What's he doing?!"

"Brewing up a sandstorm," Nazuchi answered, holding onto his hat. "I think he saved his deadliest attack for last!"

While the two were off guard, Sandstorm smirked under his scarf and swung his double-bladed sword in their direction. Two Sword Beams had fired out and managed to hit both Nazuchi and Chalk.

"Arrghh… Chalk! We need to get our act together! He could easily finish us off here!"

"What can we do, though?" Chalk grunted.

"You have to finish him off!" Nazuchi exclaimed.

"Wait, me? But how?"

"It's not going to be easy for me to reach for my bow, you know… Plus, you're not at a weaker state unlike me. You're already holding onto something that can be used as a projectile. It'll be easy for you to make the attack. I'll try to distract him, while you try to hit him."

"All right… I hope this works…" Chalk trailed.

Nazuchi gave a sigh as he managed to pull out a bomb. It was an easier reach than his bow, and the explosion could surely help keep Sandstorm distract. Lighting it up, he threw it in Sandstorm's direction and created an explosion that brought his attention to him.

"Hmmmm… So, you still have some fight in you…" Sandstorm trailed, turning to Nazuchi. "Well, I might as well take care of you first. The other can wait…"

Sandstorm prepared to charge up another Sword Beam, while Nazuchi gave Chalk a gesture to attack. The puffball nodded, aiming his paintbrush at Sandstorm. However, he noticed it glowing.

"What the…" Chalk noticed the spectral glow around the brush, and he also noticed a ball of paint energy emitting from the brush's tip. "I don't think I've ever seen this attack before…"

The energy only got bigger, and soon it fired a spectral beam of paint energy straight at Sandstorm. Hearing the sound of the beam, he turned his head and gasped.

"What's that?!"

Before he could react, he was struck by the beam, making him let out a scream of pain. The sandstorm began to calm, and both Nazuchi and Chalk had landed on the floor once the beam had faded away.

"Great job, Chalk!" Nazuchi smiled. "I never knew you had a beam like that!"

"Actually, I never knew I did either," Chalk replied, making Nazuchi give him a confused look.

"Huh?"

"I was about to make my move until suddenly the paintbrush was starting to glow," Chalk noticed a symbol of his face on the handle. "And I never noticed this either!"

Before Nazuchi was about to reply, they heard the sound of moaning behind them. Turning around, they saw Sandstorm lying on the floor, mortally wounded. The two approached him and looked down at the sandy warrior.

"W-Well done, heroes…" Sandstorm wheezed, placing his hand on his stomach. "That was such a great fight… Probably the best fight I ever got to participate in… I must thank you…"

"Thank you for what? Beating you?" Chalk scoffed.

Sandstorm reached for the Desert Tablet in his pockets and handed it to Chalk. "Take this… This is what you need, right? I'm entrusting this to you now…"

Chalk took the tablet from him and looked down at it and then at Sandstorm with a surprised expression. "And remember what I told you during our battle, Chalk. Perhaps you too will grow to be a fine warrior. Same to you too, Nazuchi."

"Are you sure you want to give the Land Tablet to us?" Nazuchi asked with uncertainty in his voice.

"I no longer desire it, my friend… It is nothing but trouble…" Sandstorm let out a small wheeze. "Can you two promise me one thing? Promise me you will keep my desert safe. That is my last request…"

"I… I guess so…" Chalk trailed. "I'll make sure that happens…"

"Th-Thank you… Now you must go… I fear that I do not have much time left here. Perhaps now I can live in peace with my comrades. They will certainly be looking forward to my arrival…"

"We probably should…" Nazuchi agreed. "Come on, Chalk. We should go. As much as I don't want to leave Sandstorm to die like this, there's nothing we can do."

"All right," Chalk nodded before slowly holding the Desert Tablet above him. A bright light emitted from the Land Tablet, causing the entire room to brighten up and eradicate all the darkness lingering in the Desert Land.

With one last glance at Sandstorm, the two began to exit the room.

_With the third Land Tablet, the Desert Tablet in the hands of the heroes, both Nazuchi and Chalk began to make their exit out of the ruins. Not only did they acquire the Desert Tablet, but they now held the second Crystal Star known as the Emerald Star. However, because of this, they now had to worry about competing against the four heroes to acquire them. There was also the worrying of what Tagel had now become. Now Nazuchi was more determined than ever to stop the evils lurking around both Tagel and all the lands around him._

* * *

Sandstorm let out a small moan as he placed his hands on his stomach. "It looks like my end is finally coming… I'm just hoping both Nazuchi and Chalk will be able to finish their duties and save the world. I have no regrets for my actions…"

_**"****No regrets, huh?"**_

The sound of the demonic voice made Sandstorm's eyes widen as a shadowy figure had risen from the shadows. The only thing he could see from the figure were the evil, light purple eyes glaring at Sandstorm.

"M-My king…" Sandstorm grunted. "I never expected to see you here…"

_**"****So I see you've failed to accomplish your duties as the guardian of the Desert Tablet, Sir Sandstorm. Because of you, this desert is restored to the light!" **_the Shadow King roared. _**"You're just pathetic, just like Froodtail!"**_

"No…" the sand knight trailed, giving the Shadow King a glare. "The only reason why I was put up to this job was because I was nearly killed by you. You only forced me into this. Though, I was too foolish back then for joining you. I should have just died then."

_**"****Hmmmm… Perhaps it may have been for the better, but you made that choice yourself, and now you're here, almost dead!"**_

"I'm willing to die right now knowing that those heroes can fulfill their goal and promise. I wish to live in peace for once in my life."

A grin had formed on the Shadow King's face. _**"Because of your failures to defeat those heroes, I think I have a much better solution for you! My wife has a certain way of punishing those who fail miserably or people she just doesn't like. Maybe you will enjoy staying there for the rest of your life!"**_

"Wait… What?!" Sandstorm's eyes widened in fear as the Shadow King got closer and lowered his hand above him. "You can't do this!"

_**"****Of course I can! You failed, and I have no use for you any longer! Sir Sandstorm, enjoy spending all eternity in the Pit of 100 Trials!"**_

Sandstorm struggled to get up, but with the little energy left in him, he was unfortunately not able to move. The only thing he could do was watch as he was transported out of the ruins.

The sound of the Shadow King cackling and his devilish grin was the last thing he saw.

* * *

**Well, looks like we're done with the Desert Land now! I'm not really a big fan of desert areas, if you couldn't tell, but I will admit that I had some fun with this. I felt the boss fight was at a good enough length - not too short and not too long to drag out.****  
**

**Anyway, the interlude is coming up next! So now we'll get to see what Lilia does next!**


	15. Lilia's Stealth Mission

Chapter 15: Lilia's Stealth Mission

"My king! I bring grave news!" a Shroude that appeared much bigger than a regular one exclaimed. It sported a curvy crown and even purple legs. A black cloak was surrounding most of its body, and black smoke appeared to be behind it as well. Unlike a normal Shroude, this one had fingers that were all glowing.

"Tell me at once then, **Omega Shroude**," demanded the Shadow King. "I do not have all day!"

"Very well… You see, I've been delivered the news that Sir Sandstorm failed to defeat that boy. Rumor also says that this hero was accompanied by someone holding the Spectral Paintbrush."

"Ah yes… Sir Sandstorm's failure. I was already given the message, thank you very much." the Shadow King replied, stroking his delicate mustache. "But this new person joining Nazuchi… Now that is something interesting. If he holds the Spectral Paintbrush, then it's possible that he…"

"Is a chosen one…" Omega Shroude finished.

"Yes. And those chosen ones carry what is possible to defeat me… If that brush truly does accept him, then there might be trouble."

"Then what do you plan on doing, Your Majesty?"

"Isn't it obvious? You hold the next Land Tablet! You get back to your headquarters and keep them away from it! It holds the key to saving that land…"

"Of course, I keep it here safely…" Omega Shroude grinned, revealing the Land Tablet under his cloak. "My Shroude minions will surely take care of them. I've sent a few out to the desert, but I believe they were weak minions of mine. …Though I do believe some of my stronger minions were having some trouble lately."

"Trouble? This must be something important…" the Shadow King trailed. "Is there a troubling presence where your headquarters are?"

"Indeed there is. Someone has been blazing through the forest and destroying my men! Many have ceased to exist from him, while some have barely come out alive. I tell you, he's very dangerous! He'll attack anything that he sees! Especially dark beings! Some have named him the **Dark Slayer**…"

"Dark Slayer? This smells like trouble for us… We can't have some fool going around and killing our men! I hold you responsible for dealing with him! Your Land Tablet should grant you the powers necessary to defeat him!"

"Yes, I can assure you that I will take care of this fool. I can't have my minions slowly decreasing by his actions! I think I'll give him a present he so eagerly deserves! …And besides, since he attacks anything he sees, maybe he could come of use."

"How so?" the Shadow King questioned, now becoming curious.

Omega Shroude smirked as a magical diagram appeared before him. "You see, if this Dark Slayer manages to discover those heroes, surely they will have to fight against him! Then whoever is still alive, I can surely destroy them easily! That means I might not have to deal with all of them at once!"

"Hmmmmm… That's not a bad idea, Omega Shroude. We let them kill each other, then we kill off the remaining, and finally we can regain the lands that have been restored by the light without those heroes! …Of course, we still have the four heroes to deal with. They might put the queen in danger…"

"What's the big problem with them? I mean, they're just four people…"

"True, but if those scoundrels find all seven Crystal Stars, then they might be able to use its power against her! I already believe they are on their search, so we must try all we can to stop them as well."

"My king, didn't the queen create those stars though?" Omega Shroude asked out of curiosity.

"Yes. She made them in order to take over the world since it had the essence of the heavens. However, the four heroes came in and ended up causing the seven stars to split into other areas of this world, which is what they are trying to do at this moment."

"You know, I can take care of them myself, you know…" the dark being smirked.

"No," the Shadow King retorted. "You already have a job of your own, and that is to keep the Forest Tablet safe from those heroes! I already have an idea of who can take care of them…"

"Absolutely, my-" Omega Shroude paused for a moment. "Wait, when you speak about the heroes, do you mean the four heroes or just…"

"The heroes seeking the Land Tablets, you fool!" the king roared. "Now I don't have time for you to be speaking to me! You must go back to your job at once!"

"Absolutely, my king," And with that, Omega Shroude disappeared by wrapping his cloak over itself, leaving the Shadow King to sigh.

"Now I just need to call him to take care of the four heroes…"

* * *

**Prison room, Lilia's cell-**

Lilia sighed as she sat down on her metallic bed. It had been very quiet for a while, and the guards didn't happen to do much or even speak to her either. Her hair, face and dress were even dirtier than before, but that was the least of her concern by now.

"If there's one thing that's bad about being a princess, it has to be that there's a chance of you getting kidnapped," Lilia grumbled. "And this was one of the few reasons why I'd rather not be of royalty…"

_**"****Keep it down in there!"**_ a Shadoo holding a lance silenced. _**"You're talking isn't helping me do my guarding!"**_

Just before the Shadoo Guard could continue, it suddenly winced. _**"Oh, geez… Something's not feeling right inside me! Errrr… I don't know if I should leave my duty now or wait for someone to take over… Oh, forget it!"**_

Lilia's looked up at the Shadoo Guard and noticed it speed out of the room as fast as possible. A confused look had appeared on her face, but at least she had some time to herself.

"I wonder how Nazuchi is doing out there. Apparently he has a new friend with him, though I think he could really improve his personality… But, maybe he might be helpful, because after all, two is better than one."

"OK, I'm here, Lilia!"

Lilia turned around and saw Yakken teleport into the room. "And I'm here just in time too!"

"What the… What do you…?" Lilia paused for a moment. "Wait a second, did you…?"

"Nothing like a little shadow prune juice can make a Shadoo Guard stay in the bathroom for forty-five minutes," Yakken smirked. "So apparently I got the news. Nazuchi and his friend had claimed the Desert Tablet, and Sir Sandstorm was apparently given a severe punishment for his failure… Then again, the Shadow King is known for being very punishing…"

"What kind of punishments does he give? Does he kill them?"

Yakken slowly shook his head. "No, he tends to send them to a place created by the Shadow Queen called the Pit of 100 Trials. Many disgusting, ugly and scary monsters live down there, and those thrown in there have to suffer. And get this, they cannot die in there, forcing them to deal with the dark pit and the monstrosities living down there forever. Such a shame for someone like Sir Sandstorm. He was not truly an evil being…"

"What do you know about him?" Lilia asked.

"He fought with two others, but they ended up dying to the Shadow King. Sandstorm even tried fighting him but lost. With nothing left in him, he ended up joining him, and now he's being forced to live in the Pit of 100 Trials. I don't think he truly deserved that, which is why the Shadow King needs to be stopped. So get ready, Lilia, we're going to sabotage his plans!"

"So do you want me to take that secret exit?"

"Correct. I will meet you back in that room so we can discuss your next task."

Yakken quickly disappeared from the room, leaving Lilia to clear the bone pile and pull the lever to reveal the secret door. She took no time at all and progressed through the tunnel and into the room she entered before.

However, there was something she soon remembered from those notes the Shadow King wrote. _"Wait… Those notes mentioned something between the Shadow King and Sandstorm…"_

Once the secret door closed behind her, she found Yakken waiting for her in the center of the room.

"So, are you ready for the task, Lilia?"

"Sure, but there's one thing I would like to ask…"

"Hmmmmm? Go right ahead."

Lilia opened her mouth to get ready to ask, but she soon found herself lowering her finger. "Never mind… I don't think it's too important anyway. You can continue with the plan."

Yakken looked a bit confused. "If you say so… Anyway, this task might be a little more dangerous for you, Lilia. After all, it does require you to sneak past some guards."

"You're asking me to sneak past guards!?" Lilia gawked. "How can I do that when I have more of a bright appearance?"

"I was just getting to that…" Yakken took out a bag. "In here, you'll find gadgets that can help you sneak around. It includes black gloves, boots and a mask made from the darkness of Shadoos, thermal goggles to help you see in the dark, and also a box."

"A box? Why do I need a box?" the princess asked, seeing the box dumped out of the bag. "And I don't know if that'll help conceal me. I mean, this pink dress might be easy for guards to see…"

"…Oh, yeah," Yakken also took out a black vest. "Put this over yourself, and those guards won't be able to see the bright colors on yourself. Now just...put the stuff on."

Lilia shrugged and started by putting the mask on. While it was difficult to fit her hair in, she managed to do so. Afterward, she got the gloves and boots on and then put the vest on. The last thing given to her was a bandanna.

"A bandanna? What for?"

"Just to… Actually, forget that." Yakken declared, tossing the bandanna away. "Now that you're all equipped, I think you might be ready to go. Guards won't be able to see you unless you get too close to their glowing eyes. The thermal goggles are designed for you to see through the dark hallways and give you an idea of where you must go."

"OK… So, what is my job?"

A diagram appeared through Yakken's magic and revealed blueprints. "You see, the Shadow King has some blueprints made that are used to help improve security in areas where the Land Tablets are located. Just so you know, it has taken a couple of months to create. Get rid of them, and we might possibly slow down the king and force him to rework some his plans."

"And if he manages to make them again…?"

"We'll obviously dispose of them again! Of course, he is able to identify whose hands might have touched it, but those gloves will shield your own hands and prevent you from being suspected. He'll surely end up blaming it on one of his minions. Unfortunately, he could identify my hands near where the blueprints could be, and if he did find out, he'd punish me for sure. Sure, I can get away with a lot, but not a lot when it comes to the king…"

"OK… Well, I guess there's not much of a choice. Perhaps we can try to show these plans to Nazuchi and his friend. It can give them some kind of warning of those plans."

"Yes, I think that is a good idea, Lilia," Yakken nodded, closing the diagram. "I believe the next Land Tablet is located in the Forest Land, and I do believe where the fortress there has the security from those blueprints set up. Boy, will the king be peeved. Anyway, for now, I'll put up another decoy in the prison cell, and you get to work, all right?"

"Right," Lilia nodded, putting on her thermal goggles and entering the door nearby. This brought her to a dark hallway with a purple carpet and several dim lights. A couple of Shadoo Guards were patrolling the area, and a small ray of light appeared from their eyes. _"I just can't get close to them, or else I'll be caught."_

When one Shadoo Guard was scratching the back of its head, Lilia decided to take this chance and sneak past the guard. She also put the box over herself to make things a bit easier. There were a couple of Darknights that were in dark purple armor too, but they didn't notice Lilia sneaking past them.

_"Wow… These enemies must either have poor eyesight or they probably just don't care…" _Lilia thought, scanning the area with her thermal goggles. There were a couple of doors around, but they didn't appear to budge.

However, there was one door ahead to the left that seemed to have a glowing green arrow on it. Recalling what Yakken had said to her about the goggles, Lilia snuck over to the door and pushed it. None of the enemies appeared to notice, to her relief.

Entering the room, there was a table just up ahead and a file cabinet in the right corner. There was also a couch that was fit for anyone – even a plump king. Just like the hallway, a purple carpet was there.

"Yeesh… How come these places aren't as nice as the prison cell? If they needed me, I'd think they'd make sure I was in good shape…"

Removing her goggles, she discovered the room was a bit dark, but not as dark as the hallway. However, there didn't appear to be any blueprints on the table ahead.

"Wait… There's no blueprints here!" Lilia realized. "I just came in here for nothing!"

"No no, there are," Yakken assured, appearing before her through black smoke. "The Shadow King has the blueprints locked up in the file cabinet. Let me check."

He walked over to the cabinet, only to discover a keyhole. "…Crud. I almost forgot that there's a key needed to unlock this! Only the king has the key for that!"

Lilia pondered for a moment before she smiled. "Actually, I think I might just have the idea!"

Lilia walked over to the cabinet and placed her hand on the keyhole. Soon, she was surrounded by a light glow, as well as the cabinet. After a bright flash, the light managed to strike the keyhole and unlock the cabinet.

"Ahhhh… So you've been training with light magic, yes?" Yakken asked, a bit surprised.

"Uh huh," Lilia nodded. "My mother taught me a bit of magic herself. She knew someone who always taught her how to use magic and did the same for me, which makes me wonder why I'm not using this to escape."

"No no, that's too risky. You'd be completely outnumbered by all the minions and the Shadow King himself, even if I was aiding you. Besides, you're the only one who can pull these kinds of jobs, which can weaken the king and allow the heroes to stop him for good."

"I suppose you have a point with being outnumbered, and sabotaging the Shadow King is not such a bad idea. It might make myself look more useful, I suppose."

"See? That's the spirit! Now then…" Yakken opened the file cabinet and looked under the sections in alphabetical order. He checked under Y and used his magic to take it out and hand it to Lilia. "That is called Project Yuke. It is known for being a rather terrible plan, hence why it's so evil. Hold onto that for now until we get back to the cells, because until then, it will-"

His explanation was soon stopped when he heard a voice coming from outside. "Oh, geez… Someone's coming! Lilia, find a safe place! Now!"

Lilia nodded and placed the box over her head away from the file cabinet. When Yakken turned to the door, he noticed the Shadow King walk in with a rather depressed look.

"My king! Why the long face?" Yakken asked. "Is something troubling you?"

"Yeah, a little bit… But I think I can get over it." the Shadow King sighed before turning his attention to Yakken. "So it looks like those heroes had gotten the Desert Tablet. Now they'll be getting the Forest Tablet, I suppose."

"Ah, yes. I did hear those news."

"Yes… But there is another danger in that forest. Apparently someone deemed the Dark Slayer is ravaging the forest and killing some of our minions… Hopefully we have him taken care of soon."

"Dark Slayer? Very interesting… I never knew there was someone like that…" Yakken trailed.

"Indeed… Anyway, you're actually the person I've come looking for."

"You wish for my assistance? What for?"

"It's something important. You see, those four heroes are going after those Crystal Stars. You know, the four people you told me about?"

"Absolutely. Are you telling me they found some?"

"Well, from what I recall, two Crystal Stars were located in the Desert Land," the Shadow King noted, making Yakken appear surprised. "While I do not know if they had found both, I want you to scout the desert for them."

"Hmmmmm… An interesting idea that is! I haven't really done much around here for a while, so I'd be happy to go down there. I already had plans to go down there in the first place!"

"…The way you said that one sentence was strange. Well, anyway, now that I've given you some orders, I think I have some business to attend to."

The Shadow King walked over to the file cabinet and opened it to search for Project Yuke. "What the… Since when was this cabinet unlocked? And where is Project Yuke!? It was supposed to be such a terrible plan, but I can't find it!"

After searching for a couple of more minutes, the Shadow King closed the cabinet and slammed his large fist on it. "I can't believe it… I spent MONTHS on that lousy thing, and now it's gone! …Yakken, do you have any idea where it might've went?"

"Search me," Yakken shrugged.

"Hmmmmm… That doesn't sound like a bad idea." the king smirked, his eyes now glowing as he stared at Yakken, however, he was a bit disappointed. "You don't have them… Come to think of it, the only thing I sense from that cabinet was dark gooey-related. …I bet one of those Shadoos took it! Oh, I'm going to have them thrown in the Pit of 100 Trials for stealing my plans!"

Now steaming with anger, the Shadow King stormed out of the room, leaving Yakken relieved, as well as Lilia, who had gotten out of her hiding spot.

"Whew… That was close!" Lilia sighed. "I was almost lucky there! …Though, from what I've heard, Nazuchi and his friend are going after the next Land Tablet. Is this 'Dark Slayer' someone they should be worrying about?"

"Hmmmmm… I'm not so sure. But let's not get into that issue. Let's get you back to your cell before anything else bad happens."

* * *

**Lilia's cell-**

Lilia had soon returned to her cell in five minutes, while Yakken got rid of the decoy that was placed in the cell. The princess also happened to remove the stealth gear, making her feel a bit better now that she didn't feel as hot.

"It's great to get out of that!" Lilia sighed. "That mask was definitely not comfortable!"

"Maybe next time I'll think of something easier for you… But for now, I need those blueprints." Yakken said before Lilia took the blueprints out and gave them to him. "I will give these to your little boyfriend to help him get past a few traps where the Forest Tablet is being guarded. So just stay put and try to relax. I'll be back when I have another job ready."

Lilia gave him a nod and watched as Yakken teleported out of the room. Strangely, he got out just in time for the Shadoo Guard to make its return.

_**"****Yeesh… That was one big blowout! My drinks don't tend to do that either!"**_

* * *

**Space station-**

"So you're descended from a group of people called the Tribe of Ancients?"

"Yeah. My kind have been around for thousands of years! Pretty neat, huh?"

Tipral and Timpani were speaking in a small room in the space station filled with many tables and cushy chairs.

"I don't get it…" Tipral trailed. "I've killed several scientists, yet you don't fear me? Even my appearance looks a bit scary…"

"Well, I think it's wrong to judge people based on how they look…" Timpani smiled. "And you did say yourself that you didn't mean to hurt those people. I could really tell how you felt. Besides, you don't look that scary to me. You look a bit friendly and cute!"

"You really think so?"

"Mmmmm-hmmmm!"

"Wow... That's...very nice. I hope you are friendly as well, Timpani."

"I'll try to make sure, Tipral," Timpani assured. "So, what do you think we should do now? We really haven't done much?"

"Well... Exploring this space station may not be a bad idea." Tipral suggested. "After all, I do want to help you get back home. I think it would be for the best..."

Agreeing with him, Timpani got off her chair and followed Tipral through the door that surprisingly opened on its own. They ended up going through the hallway to the furthest door to find a gray room full of many tanks. Inside the tanks were strange, yellow water-like creatures with mechanical heads and green eyes.

"Wh-What are those?" Timpani asked, a bit shocked by the creatures.

"I don't think they can hurt us," Tipral assured before looking at the name writing below the tank. "It says here that they're called Artificial Stardie, and it is based off the God of the Stars known as Staris... That's very interesting... But what is a god?"

"Gods are supposed to be beings with immense power, as well as being immortal," the six year old explained. "That's what my daddy remembered telling me before..."

"Hmmmm... Well, I don't recommend touching them. They might be dangerous." Tipral turned to the large window and saw a planet before them. "Huh? What is that?"

He walked over to the window and put his hands on the glass, his mouth now agape upon gazing at the planet. "Timpani... Is this your home?"

"Huh?" Timpani walked over to the window and gazed at the planet. "Oh, yes! That's where my home is! ...But it's too far..."

"Oh… I didn't know it was that far… Maybe I could smash this window and get us down there?"

"I heard someone like myself can't survive in space… Maybe you could, but I don't think I'm capable of that."

"Then… What else can we do?"

Timpani pondered for a moment before smiling. "Well, I have an idea of a game we can play to kill some time! You might like it!"

"A game?" Tipral gawked, tilting his head. "What do you mean?"

"I'll show you," Timpani slightly punched Tipral's arm and began to run out of the room. "We're playing tag, and you're it! You need to catch me and tag me back!"

"Oh… I can do that." Tipral went after her, but because the floor was slippery, he found himself sliding. However, he soon noticed his feet were off the ground, leaving him in a shocked state. "My feet… They're…"

Soon Timpani came running back into the room. "Tipral! There's a big problem!"

"What is it, Timpani?"

"One of those monsters is loose in the hallway!" Timpani explained until a crash was heard. An Artificial Stardie had broken out and was shooting lasers from its eyes. One had come near Tipral, but he ended up moving out of the way and noticed light purple in the style of flames underneath his feet.

"Strange… What is up with my feet?" When Tipral landed on the ground, he ended up sliding his feet, making him move much faster than usual. He ended up crashing into the wall, allowing the Artificial Stardie to shoot at him.

"Tipral! You need to do something!"

"But what do I do?" Tipral asked, pushing himself off the wall.

"Can you take this thing out?"

"I… No, I can't do that… I don't want to hurt anyone."

"But it's the only option! You said you accidentally hurt people. What do you think was the reason?"

Tipral was about to answer until he looked at the golden rings on his wrists. _"Were these supposed to prevent me from doing stuff like that?"_

Choosing to give it a try, Tipral aimed his hand at the Artificial Stardie. He clenched it, causing a light purple glow to appear around his fist, and he ended up punching the enemy's head, severely damaging it.

"Something like that?" Tipral asked.

"Yes! But it's not gone for good, though!" Timpani mentioned.

"Oh, right…" He tried out another one of his powers and swung his right arm. Another light purple glow in the shape of a spear was fired and managed to pierce through the Artificial Stardie's head, destroying it in the process. "Oh my gosh… I actually stopped it…"

"Thanks, Tipral… I think you'll be a great friend to have here."

"Ummmm… You're welcome." Tipral smiled before looking at his hand. _"So those rings were made to control my powers so I don't do something incredibly serious…"_

"Maybe those powers might come in handy in this place!"

"Maybe you're right, Timpani… Come on, let's see if there's anything related to getting us out of here."

Timpani was about to follow, but Tipral got her on his back and began to speed out of the room. She was even impressed by the speed he was moving in as well.

While they left, a jester from outside couldn't help but cackle as he began to write in his book.

* * *

**Well, this little segment was certainly much longer and more interesting (in my opinion) to the first one. The Lilia segment was a reference that I'm sure some people probably know about, judging by the chapter's name. Yeah, they are definitely similar to the Peach segments in Paper Mario, with Yakken being the helper rather than Twink or TEC.**

**I'm sure the moment between Tipral and Timpani is something you remember from the second chapter. **


	16. The Inhabitants of Myrtle Town

Chapter 16: The Inhabitants of Myrtle Town

"I can't believe that loser! First he tries to take my lady, then he makes me look like a fool, then he tricks us into giving us that Crystal Star!" Toadburt complained as he and the other three heroes were making their way to the Desert Land exit. "Boy, if I find him, I swear I'm… I'm going to…"

"At a lost of words, sonny?" Goombi asked. "Look, we're all a bit annoyed that those two didn't really learn anything. They basically tricked us. But I see no reason to complain when there are five more out there for us to get."

"But… But… Did you see what he did!?"

"Look, I respect his choice and all, but I don't think we can entirely trust those two with the Crystal Stars…" Koopo trailed. "Hopefully they keep that star safe. I also hope we don't have to resort to something like that again."

"It's kind of strange, since that's something I would normally do," Bonnie added. "I do commend them into giving us a fake star."

"It was made of paint," Toadburt noted, showing his green hands. "And it got all over my hands! Yeesh, where can I find some water to wash this off?"

"Water isn't the only thing that can help. You need soap too." Goombi informed.

"Oh… And there's none around here, which stinks."

Before Toadburt could whine any further, a familiar face had flown down onto the sand. He scooped some sand from the floor and let it fall from his glove.

"Hmmmmm… This place must've been returned to normalcy, I presume?" Lighten wondered as he stood up. He noticed the four heroes and was left surprised. "Hmmmm? Fancy meeting you people here. This almost reminds me of back in the Grass Land."

"Yo, Mask Face, I've got something to tell ya," Toadburt said, pointing at his mask. "You better keep your apprentice away from those stars."

"What do you mean?"

"He fooled us and got the Crystal Star from our hands!"

"Well, technically, they did get the star first…" Koopo trailed.

"That ain't the point! Those Crystal Stars are ours, ya hear me? OURS!"

"Calm down, Toadburt. It's not the end of the world." Bonnie groaned. "We might already be one step ahead of them with the next Crystal Star."

"Look, I don't mean to interrupt your moment, but did Nazuchi appear to run through here by any chance?" Lighten asked.

Toadburt turned to him with a glare. "Yeah, he did. But I don't know where he went, nor do I care. We've got some better business to attend to – such as getting myself a new weapon to fight with! Maybe something like a sword?"

"You mean like this?" Lighten wondered, drawing Galaxia. Toadburt couldn't help but gaze at the weapon. "Yes, it is a very nice weapon… It's been passed down through my ancestors and is said to be a very powerful weapon… Perhaps it might be enough to take down pure evil itself?"

"Dude… I seriously need to get one of those! Anyway, let's just move!"

Once again, the heroes were stopped, only this time they were more surprised by this person's appearance.

"Greetings, heroes," Yakken greeted, appearing near the entrance with his cloak's teleportation. He was holding a staff in his right hand with a purple gem.

"And you are?" Lighten asked, his sword ready. Yakken looked down at the sword and was a bit surprised by its appearance.

"My name is Yakken. I'm the Shadow King's right-hand man." Now this got the five in a fighting position, but he remained calm. "You could also say I'm a friend of Princess Lilia."

"Huh? Wait, what are you supposed to be?" Bonnie asked, trying to see through the face that was hidden under Yakken's hood.

"So I've heard about you heroes collecting the Crystal Stars, is that correct?"

"Yes," Koopo nodded. "Then again, I don't know if I should be telling this to someone working for the Shadow King."

"Well he did ask me to kill you," Yakken shrugged. "As much as I hate my king, he doesn't approve of you trying to stop his wife."

"Where is this wife of his?" Lighten asked.

"She took over a place called Tagel and created her own land there. I believe now it has turned into the Shadow Land."

Lighten remained silent for a moment until he gripped his sword tightly. "My home… She's not going to get away with this."

"Maybe defeating you will give her a little warning," Koopo stated, readying his sword. "Though, I suggest you be ready for this, dark being!"

"Well, it looks like I have no choice…" Yakken split his staff into two, transforming them into purple blades. "I'm actually wanting to see what you people can pull off."

Toadburt had made the first move and began to charge at Yakken, who simply stepped aside and let him trip. When Koopo tried swinging his large sword, Yakken brought his two blades up to block it. The Koopa hero gaped as he was easily pushed back by two small blades.

However, when Lighten prepared to swing at him, Yakken quickly moved out of the way as fast as he could. This ended up leaving him open, allowing Bonnie to hit him with a fire spell.

"For a king's right-handed man, you're rather cowardly," Bonnie scoffed.

"That's because I'm not as skilled of a fighter compared to some of the other minions," Yakken assured.

"Well we shouldn't let a wimp like him get in our way then," Toadburt said, emptying the sand from his cap. "We're supposed to be searching for those stars before that punk gets his hands on the next one."

"Enough with the name-calling, Toadburt," Goombi scolded. "It's getting very immature. His name's Nazuchi!"

"Hmmmmm?" Yakken thought for a moment before stepping aside. "You know, now that I think about it, I don't think I can beat you guys. Like the Boo said, I'm a bit of a coward myself… Enjoy your little hunt, OK?"

"Yeah! That's… Wait, what?" Toadburt gawked. "You're lettin' us through?"

"…Just leave before I change my mind. I have something a little more important to attend to anyway."

"OOOOOOOOK…" Goombi trailed. "Well, I suppose we should just get going then."

The four heroes decided to leave, which left only Lighten and Yakken.

"Well, I don't have much of a reason to be here," Lighten stated, putting his sword away. "I have to go look for Nazuchi. Such a shame that I never found him back at the Grass Land."

Lighten spread his wings out and soon took off. Sadly, he did not see two figures making their way back to the entrance of the Desert Land.

"Yeesh… That was some walk, wasn't it?" Chalk sighed. "My feet are killing me!"

"Well, at least we know how to get out," Nazuchi mentioned. "I'm a bit surprised that that sand castle was still standing… Nevertheless, we've got the Desert Tablet, and now this desert's back to normal! I think Sandstorm might be happy…"

"And now my paintbrush has a mark of myself on it! Cool…"

"We should probably ask Merlon about that. Maybe he has a bit of an idea about that."

Just as they reached the entrance, they saw Yakken waiting for them. "Hey, Naz! Didn't we see that guy from before?"

"Yeah… Back in Myrtle Town…" Nazuchi nodded, approaching Yakken. "Hey! What're you doing here?"

"Waiting for you, of course," Yakken answered.

"…Really?"

"Yes. There's something I need to give you." Yakken reached for the blueprints in his inventory and gave them to Nazuchi. "I can assure you that this will help you in the next land."

"What is it?" Nazuchi asked.

"Blueprints, of course. It shows off the traps and how to get passed them, along with deactivating them. Believe it or not, Lilia helped retrieve this, so you should really thank her."

"No way… That's cool! I hope she's doing all right there. Just tell her we'll try to get to her as fast as we can!"

"Yes, I will certainly do that," Yakken nodded. "I hate that king as much as you do, so I'll try to give you as much help as possible to help you stop him. But for now, I should probably get going. Good luck on your quest, Nazuchi and Chalk."

Using his cloak, he quickly disappeared from their sight.

"Hmmmm… This Yakken is admittedly pretty helpful." Nazuchi smiled, looking at the blueprints. "It actually feels pretty nice to get his help. Though, I don't think we should entirely put our trust in him…"

"Yeah, you can say that again," Chalk agreed. "We should just get out of here, though. This desert is kinda stupid."

"…OK, I guess we shall."

With that, the two made their exit out of the Desert Land.

* * *

**Land of the Ancients-**

The two heroes reached the end of the orange bridge and set foot on the Land of the Ancients. The first thing Nazuchi did was take his floppy hat off and shook his head to get any sand off his hair. He also shook his hat to do the same thing. Meanwhile, Chalk continued to stare at the symbol of himself on his paintbrush.

"I hope this Merlon guy knows about this thing…" Chalk trailed.

"Oh ho ho! It looks like you heroes are back!" Merlon exclaimed, seeing their arrival. "How was the trip?"

"Not that fun, I'll admit," Nazuchi answered.

"Hmmmm?"

"It was a desert area. It wasn't really all that fun. But we did manage to get the Desert Tablet."

Chalk took out the Desert Tablet and showed it to Merlon. There happened to be sand carved on it, along with an orange, glowing line. "Ahhh… It has been so long since I've seen the Desert Tablet… With that, this makes three of them. Only five more remain until we can reach Battilio, heroes."

The gray puffball took the tablet back from him. "Hey, there's something I wanna know about."

"Does something trouble you, young one?" Merlon wondered, raising an eyebrow.

"Take a look at this symbol here," Chalk said, pointing to the symbol on the paintbrush. Merlon took the brush from him and inspected it. "You know anything about that?"

"Your face appears to be depicted on here… However, I'm not an expert on weapons… Perhaps you could ask the weapons expert, Merlpon. He lives in a tent that resembles colors of fire. You can find him in Myrtle Town."

"Ooh! Sure thing, gramps!" Chalk cheered, taking the paintbrush back. "Off we go, Naz! To that town ahead!"

Nazuchi gave a shrug and followed Chalk over to Myrtle Town. Admittedly, he had never truly explored the area except when he was going to the temple up on the hill. He was sure it was peaceful anyway.

A couple of signs were around each tent, but Chalk only seemed to ignore them and the other shamans around. It wasn't until he stopped by a tent to the far right that had depictions of fire.

"That's probably it!" Chalk declared, running into the tent. Nazuchi sighed and followed him inside. There were many different types of weapons in the tent, along with a forge. There was also a shaman in a red cloak with an orange orb hanging from his neck. His eyes appeared to be a blazing yellow.

"Hmmmm? What's this? You two are much different from this land…" the shaman trailed. "You do know I am Merlpon, an expert on weapons, right? I've studied them ever since I was young."

"Yeah, yeah… That old guy named Merlon told me you might know something about this." Chalk said, showing him the symbol on the Spectral Paintbrush.

"This… This is the Spectral Paintbrush!" Merlpon gaped. "This was once wielded by a great artist by the name of…"

"Look, I don't mean to interrupt you, but we're kind of on a tight schedule here…" Nazuchi cut in.

"Oh… My bad. So you, gray one, wish to know about this symbol on this paintbrush?"

"Yeppers," Chalk nodded.

"Very well then. You see, the Spectral Paintbrush is rather special compared to a normal weapon. One can pick it up, but they won't be able to use its full potential unless the brush accepts them as their wielder. Perhaps your skills with the paintbrush have made it accept you as its wielder and allow you to use more abilities."

"Kind of like that one paint beam! Cool…" the puffball smiled, looking at the symbol.

"Yes, these weapons are usually special because only those who are the chosen ones may use them. The Sword of Light, for example, will accept the user if they are able to pull it out from its pedestal. I can obviously see you hold that, blonde one."

"Yup," Nazuchi nodded, inspecting his sword.

"Take good care of that weapon. It should surely help you on your quest," Merlpon nodded. "In the meantime, perhaps if you ever found some Magic Powder around each land, I could grant you a new move for your weapons. Trust me, they could be _anywhere_."

"Hmmmmm… Well, we'll keep that in mind. Why don't we go back to Merlon, Chalk?"

"How 'bout we check out more of this place," Chalk suggested.

Defeated, Nazuchi followed Chalk out of the tent and over to a yellow one. There was a shaman in a yellow cloak with a green orb around his neck and green eyes. He also sported a brown mustache.

"Ah, so we have customers!" the shaman said gleefully. "My name is Merlant. I have many accessories for you to buy, or if you have anything unneeded, I can always buy them from you! I can also hold on to an item if your inventory is looking full. Also, by buying stuff, you get points. Earning a certain amount of points gives you a free gift!"

"I could just buy enough for that, but I see no point," Chalk shrugged. "I'll take some Super Shrooms and Fire Flowers, please!"

"Add some POW Blocks to that," Nazuchi added.

They made their purchase and left the shop. There were plenty of more things to do around Myrtle Town as well. In fact, they even discovered some Magic Powder in some tents and outside. Some other tents included a fortune teller wearing a light blue cloak with long, curly blonde hair, yellow eyes and brown shoes called Merluvlee who was capable of giving locations to any secret items for a price.

She also had a brother name Merlow, who was much shorter and sported a blue cloak, a small blonde curl of hair, yellow eyes and a red orb with a star embedded in it around his neck. Apparently they learned from him that he'll trade things like Star Pieces for some rare gadgets. The two heroes had also learned that Merlon was their grandfather.

In an orange tent, a female shaman with an orange cloak, red orb-shaped earrings, a red orb tied around her neck and red shoes named Merlummy. She spoke in an Italian accent and would make food for them if they had the correct ingredients.

Finally, they went to a gray tent with a glass jug above it. A shaman in a gray cloak with yellow eyes, a green orb with a star embedded in it tied around his neck, a brown mustache and black shoes named Merlerry ran the bar. He would share a few stories to the heroes if they had paid him 10 coins.

After their large exploration around Myrtle Town, the two heroes approached the blue tent near the large door where the Land Tablets would be placed. Merlon had just walked out of the house and was surprised by their arrival.

"Ah! So you've finished your exploration around Myrtle Town! How were things?" Merlon asked. "Did Merlpon managed to explain what that symbol was?"

"He said something about this brush accepting me as its wielder and letting me use cool new moves," Chalk explained. "I think I might like this brush more!"

"Merlon, there's something else we'd like to show you," Nazuchi pulled out the Emerald Star and showed it to the shaman.

"Is… Is that a Crystal Star!?" Merlon gasped. "But… How did you manage to grab a hold of that?!"

"We found it in the ruins in the Desert Land. We also got a hold of the map leading to them thanks to Merlee."

"Mmmmm… So Merlee had managed to find the map to those stars. Nazuchi, it is very important that you keep that star and the map safe from evil."

"What do you mean?"

"The Crystal Stars were created by the Shadow Queen to hold the essence of the heavens. They were going to be used to take over this world, but four heroes showed up and only caused the seven stars to get separated. They are even stronger than the queen herself…"

"Wow… Though, I do remember those four heroes mentioning something about those stars getting separated."

"I see…" Merlon trailed. "Has Merlee told you anything else?"

"We found out what happened to Tagel," Nazuchi explained. "That place belongs to the Shadow Queen now. I can't believe it transformed into a place so horrible…"

"It was all dark and freaky-looking too," Chalk added.

"I'm very sorry to hear that, Nazuchi…" Merlon said solemnly.

"Well, not all hope is lost. We can always put an end to that witch with these Land Tablets, right?" Nazuchi wondered.

"I do believe so. I guess I will stand aside and let you place the Land Tablet where it belongs."

Chalk nodded and approached the large door nearby. Taking out the Desert Tablet, he placed it in the third opening just below the Grass Tablet. The door emitted a bright flash, causing the whole area to shake around them. Unlike before, this was much heavier and left some of the shamans in Myrtle Town alarmed.

A yellow laser was fired out from the door and into the next land beside the Desert Land, creating a yellow bridge. The ground stopped shaking, while the laser on the door disappeared, making the town remain calm once again.

"At long last… The way to the Forest Land has been revealed." Merlon stated. "Nazuchi… Chalk… The Forest Tablet should be just past that bridge. From what I've heard, it is usually quite peaceful there, but with the darkness lingering over that place, I fear the place has completely changed…"

"Well, that's why we're here!" Nazuchi smiled, putting on a brave look. "Come on, Chalk! Let's go!"

"Right behind ya, Naz!" Chalk replied, following Nazuchi across the glowing yellow bridge with more motivation than ever.

When they had gotten farther through the bridge, Merlon turned away and began to return to his tent.

"_Wow… It's really cool that this paintbrush accepted me as it master! I bet something like that didn't happen with you, Naz!" scoffed Chalk, who continued to brag over the Spectral Paintbrush. Nazuchi, meanwhile, began to inspect the blueprints Yakken had given to them. He felt proud to know that Lilia was able to pull something like that off, making him believe that despite not being around, she might be able to help save the world after all. The two heroes' thoughts were soon interrupted when they saw something that left them surprised._

* * *

**Some of the shamans in Myrtle Town were not actually from the Paper Mario games. Only Merlon, Merluvlee and Merlow are from the games. The others in the town were ideas created by me. Considering that I didn't really do much with Myrtle Town, I thought it would be a great idea to add that stuff in. **

**For those of you who found the Desert Land to be a bit on the boring side, maybe the Forest Land might be a lot different. :)**


	17. Enter the Dark Slayer

Chapter 17: Enter the Dark Slayer

Through the forest, two Shroudes were exploring and were scanning the area in the process. From what they remembered, they were tasked to search for two heroes searching for the Forest Tablet. However, they also had another task Omega Shroude had assigned them.

"This is pointless," the first Shroude remarked, making a sudden stop. "We've been going in circles, and we've found absolutely nothing. And who is this Dark Slayer anyway? Doesn't sound like anything big."

"These were Omega Shroude's orders, and those must be followed," the second Shroude noted. "We'd be receiving a severe punishment if we disobeyed… And this Dark Slayer is someone who is very dangerous to us. Of course, from what I remember, he usually attacks anything he sees."

"Oh, I see… Well, I'm actually shocked that this area was restored to normal. I'm guessing that was those heroes' doing…"

Before the other Shroude could answer, they heard the sound of bushes rustling. The two paused for a moment and listened again. Turning to the direction they heard it, they saw nothing.

"What was that?" the second Shroude asked, feeling a bit worried.

"Probably nothing important. Let's just get back to work."

They heard more rustling, only this time, it was coming from the trees. Before they could speak or move, the first Shroude was soon sliced in half and disintegrated.

"What the… Oh, geez… Something's not right here!" the remaining Shroude sweat dropped, looking around the area for any suspicious people. It raised its glowing finger, ready for any attack. "Show yourself!"

It heard something land from behind, and turning around, the Shroude got a glimpse of a shadow figure and a katana coming its way. However, it did not have enough time to react.

* * *

**Forest Land Entrance-**

"I don't believe it…" Nazuchi gaped, getting a glimpse of the new land. It was filled with mostly dark green grass and a few different flowers ranging from red, green and blue. While it looked rather similar to the Grass Land, the Forest Land was mostly covered in trees, making it difficult to see the sky. However, those details were not what caught the two heroes off guard.

"Hey, this place is filled with light," Chalk noticed. "Does this mean this whole world was restored to the light?"

"I don't know… Maybe just this area…" the blonde boy trailed, getting off the glowing yellow bridge. Surprisingly, the bridge had led them into a town. Unlike Myrtle Town, this town had house rather than tents, and the people inhabiting this area were people with leaves covering their faces except for their yellow eyes, and gloves and boots made of wood. They mostly had a light green appearance.

However, they weren't the only people inhabiting this town. There were a few Toads, Koopas, Goombas and even Yoshis as well. They wore a single leaf on their foreheads.

"What's this? Do we have visitors?" one of the townspeople known as a Leaface asked as he approached them. "You two are rather strange… You're probably the first visitors we've had in a while…"

"In a while?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Yeah. It's a bit difficult to get to a town like this. I think it's because there are some people who end up in the Confusing Woods and never come back. And those who do get through are usually scared off by the Dark Slayer."

"Dark Slayer? Who's that?" Chalk asked.

"Someone scary, that's for sure! He's even come to our town and attacked a few of us! He's one of the few reasons why some people tend to stay in their homes!"

"Wow… That sounds pretty bad." Nazuchi frowned. A thought appeared in his mind before clenching his fists. "I bet this is someone the Shadow King must've hired to attack people!"

"You think this Dark Slayer might have the Land Tablet?" Chalk wondered.

"I bet! It would make sense for someone like him to carry that. The only option would be to find him…"

"F-Find him?!" the Leaface gasped. "But… You'd never make it out alive! It's suicide, man! Don't do it!"

"Well we don't have much of a choice," Nazuchi informed. "We can't stay in this town any longer. There's something that we need to find, and that Dark Slayer is bound to be holding it."

"Ummmm… Well, I guess I can't stop you. You do what you want, OK?"

The Leaface left them be, allowing the two heroes to explore the town on their own. They spoke to a few Leafaces, but they too were showing worry over this Dark Slayer and even warning them not to leave town. Not even the other villagers were helping.

Reaching the green gate at the end of town, they noticed it was closed tightly and guarded by a Leaface wearing a miner's cap. Chalk was about to ask about the miner's cap, but Nazuchi gestured him not to.

"You two must be new to town…" the gatekeeper trailed. "I'm guessing you two want to go through this gate, am I right?"

"Yes," Nazuchi nodded.

"Well, I'm afraid I can't let you through. Y'see, the mayor requested this gate to be locked at all times to prevent any dangers from coming through. Last time we kept it open, the Dark Slayer came and, well… Horrors awaited us."

"But we really need to go through there!" Chalk cried. "I wanna see all the cool stuff!"

"You really want to go through here?" the gatekeeper gawked. "That's suicide, you know… That Dark Slayer might find you and… Actually, I don't think I'm going to convince you. If you really wish to go through the gate, go ask Mayor Leafing. He authorized this gate to be closed, and only he can give people access through this gate."

"If that's our only option, then we might as well do that," Nazuchi stated. "Come on, Chalk. Let's go ask the mayor."

"His house has the blue roof, just in case if you had no idea."

Listening to the gatekeeper, Nazuchi and Chalk proceeded over to the house with the blue roof. It happened to be in the middle of town, so it wasn't so hard to see. They entered the door and found a rug made of leaves on the floor, along with some furniture such as a couch, a few tables and a lamp. There was also an old Leaface wearing glasses and had a white mustache. It wasn't as brilliant-looking as Merlon's, but it wasn't too bad.

"Whozit? Who are you kids?" Leafing asked, trying to get a glimpse of them through his glasses. "Are you here to mess with my lawn?"

"Errr… No." Nazuchi answered, a look of confusion now on his face. "My name is Nazuchi, and my friend here is named Chalk. We were just wondering if-"

"No, I see it here! You came here to rob me of all my items, as well as my dignity! Well, I really can't do much as an old Leaface… Go on ahead. Take whatever you'd like. Just don't take my dignity."

"You said we could take your dignity," Chalk noted.

"Shush! Err… What was I just talking about?" Leafing wondered, putting a finger under his chin. "Were you kids asking me something?"

"We want to go past the gate," Nazuchi sighed.

"…Ah! That gate I keep locked? No can do, sonny. We're not supposed to let anyone through when it's too dangerous to go alone. Usually we give 'em a little something to help them, but we're all out of that. Plus, we've got some guy called the Dark Slayer snooping around and hurting our people. What for? Well I have no clue!"

"But that's why we want to leave town! The guy sounds like trouble, and he might have something we need!"

"Well… You folks sure look like you have something to protect yourself with." Leafing said, noticing the weapons the two had. "Hmmmmm… Very well! I will let you through! But once you go through that gate, we're locking it tight, got that?"

"Sure thing!" Chalk nodded. "I doubt we'll even need to go back into town anyway!"

"Yeah… Well, let's just get ready before going."

Just before they could do anything, they heard a scream from outside. The door was quickly opened by a Leaface female.

"Mayor! Mayor!" she cried.

"Eh? What'ya want, missy?" Leafing asked.

"He… He broke through the gate and completely obliterated the gatekeeper!"

"What?! The gatekeeper's been killed?! Show me!"

"I can't! There's nothing left of him!"

Both Nazuchi and Chalk were now left with frightened expressions. They had just met him a couple of minutes ago, and now he was completely gone.

"Oh, dear… These news are very grave…" Leafing trailed, slowly shaking his head. He looked up at Nazuchi and Chalk with serious looks. "You two! You might as well get going now, 'cause if he's who you're looking for, he might be making his way out of here soon."

"U-Understood," Nazuchi nodded, rushing out of the house with Chalk. When they reached the gate, they noticed it was sliced in half. Now the two heroes were even more frightened.

"Gee, Naz… This Dark Slayer actually might be a bit more…d-dangerous than we th-thought…" Chalk stammered.

"Y-Yeah… But let's not try to overestimate this person…" Nazuchi suggested, trying to put on a brave look while pointing at the broken gate. "Right now, we need to go after him!"

Nazuchi began to run on ahead, leaving small trails of electricity that quickly disappeared after a second. Chalk followed him through the broken gate. However, little did they know that three shadowy figures were watching them.

"Mmmmwee hee hee hee! Did you see that, my lovelies?" one shadowy figure rose out of the shadows and grinned at the heroes. "So, these two are the ones our king and queen have been mentioning lately…"

Her sisters rose from the shadows as well, with the youngest having a look of uncertainty. The other and much larger one only let out a small grunt.

"Now, we haven't been given any orders to go after these two fools… But, that doesn't stop us from trying! Though, I do not believe using brute force will help us here, so don't get your hopes up, Marilyn!"

"Guh…" Marilyn sighed.

"So, sis, what do you have planned?" the youngest Shadow Siren, Vivian, asked.

"I was just getting to that, fish breath!" Beldam snarled, making Vivian frown. "I also heard that someone deemed the Dark Slayer is somewhere in this forest! Those heroes will be busy with him while we plan a strategy to trap those dimwits! Now, Vivian… Bring me the papers you brought."

"…Papers? You never told me to get some papers…"

"WHAT!? Oh, I can't BELIEVE you, Vivian! I specifically told you that we would need those papers to write out our plans! Ooh… There will be some severe punishment coming your way, missy! You're such a disgrace to this family!"

"Guh!" Marilyn grunted.

"What do you mean _I_ was carrying them?" Beldam checked her inventory and found some papers. "Ah… Now I see. Thank you for telling me, Marilyn. At least you're loyal and trusting like a _certain_ sister of ours…"

"But if you had the papers, does this mean I'm still punished?" Vivian asked.

"Of course you're still punished, you little twit! However, that will wait until later. We need to discuss these plans, but not here. We're rather suspicious people in this area, and it'd be best to do it in the shadows. So let us go, my lovelies!"

Beldam sank into the shadows, along with Marilyn and Vivian, and soon the three were getting started on their plans.

* * *

**Leaflet Trail-**

The two heroes decided to slow down for a moment when they were no longer in town. There was a small dirt path that created a trail through the forest, while many trees surrounded them. There were also many different types of flowers and mushrooms on the ground too.

What also surprised the two were the enemies lingering around. They weren't actually dark enemies, but rather things such as Piranha Plants, black Fuzzies and also flower-like enemies with lavender petals and a yellow face called Crazee Dayzees. There was also a sign labeled "Leaflet Trail".

"Well, this is a rather nice place," Nazuchi smiled. "While not as open as the desert, I can definitely live with this. Not too dry, and it doesn't feel so cold either!"

Before he could do anything, a Crazee Dayzee had already began to sing a song. A musical note had come from its mouth and hit Nazuchi, causing him to fall asleep. The sound of his snores caught Chalk's attention.

"Hey! Are you sleeping on the job, Naz?" Chalk noticed a Piranha Plant appear in front of Nazuchi and prepare to bite him. Chalk, of course, reacted by painting the carnivorous plant red and setting it aflame. This helped destroy it in an instant. Afterward, he slapped Nazuchi to wake him up.

"Who? What?" Nazuchi cried, looking around with widened eyes before realizing where he was. "Oh… I'm still here. I was just having this nice dream…"

"Probably a dream with you and that princess," the puffball snickered, causing Nazuchi's face to redden in embarrassment.

"N-No! Not at all!"

Before saying another word, Chalk shot red paint at the Crazee Dayzee and let it turn to ash. Twirling his paintbrush and putting it away, Chalk moved on ahead through the trail. Some Fuzzies latched onto him and absorbed some of his health, but Nazuchi took care of them with a couple of light arrows.

Deciding that long range was the better idea around here, they fired arrows and paint at any enemies that tried to approach them. Some Piranha Plants managed to pop in front of them and bite at them, but Nazuchi managed to kick one with his Platinum Boots, while Chalk fired a Paint Beam at the enemy.

"Man, this beam ROCKS!" Chalk cheered.

However, their travel soon came to a halt when they found two ways to go. One was up ahead, while there was another path to the right. Sadly, there were no signs to give them any instructions.

But one thing that caught the two off guard was a shadowy figure that appeared much taller than them standing in their way up ahead. They couldn't get a glimpse of the strange character, but the figure certainly looked something…out of place compared to the monsters and people they've seen.

"Hey! That must be that Dark Slayer!" Chalk exclaimed before taking a couple of steps and facing the figure. "HEY! GET OVER HERE! GIVE US THAT FOREST TABLET!"

"Chalk! That's not how you tell the enemy to give us something!" Nazuchi scolded.

The figure only responded by running away and slicing a couple of tree down at such an impressive speed that only blocked their way. Seeing how fast the figure jumped back into the trees left the two in shock.

"That guy… Did you see how fast he moved?! He was like a _blur_!" the blonde boy gasped.

"And he blocked the way!" Chalk complained. "…Oh, wait. That's just tree chunks. We can burn it down!"

Chalk approached the rubble and painted it red. Despite it being burned down, a large amount of dark smoke was in the way, and upon touching it, it made Chalk cringe and move back. Nazuchi tried to get rid of it with some light, but it wasn't enough to destroy it.

"Sheesh... This is something powerful..." Nazuchi gawked. "I guess he doesn't want us going after him. But, that's not stopping us just yet! Let's check that other way, all right?"

They headed back, but stopped at the other pathway that was to the right and headed through. However, what they discovered was a beautiful spring with water running down a ledge ahead of them in the water. It was not even shallow, with it only going up to their feet. Up the ledge was also a statue of a unicorn. There were also not many trees getting in the way, making the sun shine down on the water.

"What is this place? It looks incredible!" Nazuchi gaped. "I never knew there were hot springs around here!"

"My feet certainly feel good!" Chalk smiled. "Can we stay here for a while?"

"Well, we can relax for a bit, but we have to still clear that smoke. …Hey, there's something strange about that statue… Does it have a lightning symbol on it?"

Nazuchi climbed onto the ledge and got a closer look at the statue, while Chalk chose to simply sit in the shallow water and relax. Pondering over this, Nazuchi looked back down at his boots and noticed the static coming from it thanks to the water. A smile forming on his face, he delivered a kick to the statue, shattering it and creating a hole that made a large amount of water shoot upward and toss a large chest that fell right near Nazuchi's foot.

"What was that? That interrupted my peaceful time!" Chalk complained.

"Hmmmm… Well, looks like I'm about to find out!" Nazuchi smiled, opening the chest. Reaching inside, he found a pair of gauntlets that resembled his boots, only they had a symbol of wind embedded on it. "So… I'm guessing these must be…Platinum Gauntlets! I'm going to put them on right now!"

Nazuchi removed his leather gloves and equipped the new gauntlets. He felt a small amount of wind emit from them for a moment before fading away. However, there was also something else he felt in these gauntlets. As if his strength in his fists had increased.

"Hey, whatcha got there?" Chalk asked, staring at his gauntlets. "Those almost remind me of those boots of yours!"

"Hold on…" Nazuchi stepped away from the water and opened the palm of his hand. He thrust it forward, creating a small gust of wind that slightly blew some leaves on the trees off. He soon balled his hand into a fist and punched the floor. A small hole was created, as well as a cyclone that had surrounded him until spreading out. Thankfully, it didn't touch Chalk. Standing up straight, Nazuchi inspected his gauntlets and smirked.

"Chalk… I think I might have an idea of how to get rid of that dark smoke."

Just as they were about to go, two Shroudes had appeared in front of them and were giving them demented looks. One drew its finger and let it extend to hit Nazuchi. Thankfully, he got his sword out in time to block it, while Chalk jumped on the long finger and approached its face. With yellow paint, it was now paralyzed.

"At least we're going to be fighting something!" Chalk smiled, smacking the enemy in the face in the process before poisoning it with green paint. Nazuchi quickly ran up its finger and delivered a kick to its face too.

"So… My boots are good for kicking enemies, and these gauntlets are pretty strong themselves… This'll work just fine!"

When Nazuchi jumped onto the floor, he managed to punch the other Shroude as hard as he could, sending it flying back due to the gauntlet's wind powers. He took out his bow and froze it with an ice arrow before firing a flaming Sword Beam to finish it off. Before Chalk could finish off the other Shroude, it exploded from Nazuchi's bomb.

"Hey! No fair!" Chalk frowned.

"Well, I gotta do stuff too, you know," Nazuchi pointed out, putting his sword away. "And I was also able to test out these neat-looking gauntlets! Anyway, let's try to clear that dark smoke."

They left the hot spring and returned to the main trail. Once Nazuchi approached the dark smoke in the way, he opened his hand and thrust it to blow the dark smoke away. Just as he predicted, it had gone away, allowing them to proceed onward through the trail. Of course, there were the usual Fuzzies and Piranha Plants that tried stopping them, but all Nazuchi had to do was punch the ground and send a cyclone that threw them all back.

"This is so cool…"

"Yeah, keep being a showoff, showoff," Chalk sulked, not getting any action.

"Your fault for not getting my name right in the Desert Land… Or, pretty much all the time."

Chalk ignored him before following him onward. They noticed a pathway that led straight to an area with many paths to take. There was also a sign nearby that was labeled "Confusing Woods".

"OK… So we have about three other ways to go… But where do we go?" the blonde boy wondered, looking at the different paths. He paused for a moment when he heard some music playing somewhere in the woods. "Hey, Chalk! Did you hear that?"

"I hear music," Chalk proclaimed. "And I like it!"

"Maybe if we listen to where the music's the loudest, we might be able to get a clue of where we need to go!"

They listened carefully for the song, and after going near the three pathways, it turned out that the music was loudest to the left. The two made their way through that way into another similar-looking area, only this time, there were some bushes close together, along with a Piranha Plant.

The Piranha Plant popped in front of Nazuchi and tried chomping at him, but a simple, flaming swing from his sword defeated it in an instant. Chalk checked behind the bushes and discovered a pipe.

"Hey, Naz! Is this anything important?" Chalk asked.

"Well… You can go down and check it out." Nazuchi shrugged.

Chalk nodded and jumped into the pipe, only to come back out a minute later with a Thunder Rage and a few coins. "Man, did I hit a jackpot or what? I got a Thunder Rage and some money! Who thought there'd be cash lying around in an underground room?"

"Hmmmmm… Hey, that could help us, you know. Anyway, let's get back to getting through this maze."

They had heard the music coming from straight ahead, making them progress into an area with a small pond and a few Fuzzies bouncing around. Nazuchi fired arrows at them both to eliminate them, while Chalk listened for the music coming from straight ahead again. This led them to a more open area in the forest with the other pathways being at a greater distance. The right walkway had a ledge in the way, and countless Fuzzies were bouncing around, including a particular red one.

"Oh, geez… Not that guy again…" Nazuchi groaned.

"What the meork do you mean I can't meork here?!" the Angry Fuzzy exclaimed to the other Fuzzies.

"Meeeeeeooork! You're too angry!" the leader replied.

"I don't give a meorking meork! Let me meork here!" the Angry Fuzzy turned around and took notice of Nazuchi and Chalk. "Meork?! Why are you meorks here?! Listen, I don't meorking have time for this!"

"Meeeeeeork? You know them?"

"Of course, you meork! They've been meorking in my meork for so long! If you help me meork these meorks, maybe I can meork here?"

"Sure, meeeeork!"

The Fuzzies began to make their way toward the two, but Nazuchi got a bomb out and threw it into the crowd, causing an explosion that sent the Fuzzies flying out of the area, including the Angry Fuzzy.

"MEEEEEEEEORRRRK YOOOOOOOOU!" the Angry Fuzzy cried before it could no longer be seen.

"Cool. Do that again!" Chalk smiled.

"Errrr… Maybe not." Nazuchi gawked, putting his bombs away. "Chalk, can you listen to where the song's coming from?"

"Well, I can see something over here!" Chalk pointed out, approaching the left way. Nazuchi followed him over there to find a small area with a couple of bushes and a few Piranha Plants. The two worked together and defeated them to reveal a chest containing a Super Shroom.

Despite being disappointed with the reward, Chalk headed back to the large area with Nazuchi and took the right path after hearing the music being the loudest there.

"Say, Naz… Who do you think is playing that music?" Chalk asked.

"That's a good question…" Nazuchi pondered as they entered the next area, which was smaller and contained a couple of leaves flying around the area. "You think the Dark Slayer has something to do with this?"

Chalk pondered as they progressed through the nice little area. Sadly, there weren't other pathways except for the one that was dead ahead. Apparently it was straightforward from here. Well, until they came across more dark smoke blocking the way. Thankfully, Nazuch's wind gauntlets helped blow it away and allow them to progress to a bridge going over a river.

One thing for sure was that the bridge was pretty high over the river.

"Gee… That sure looks like a long fall…" Chalk trailed, looking down at the rough waters. "But this bridge has a railing! It shouldn't be any problem for us, right!"

The two carefully crossed the bridge, noticing that it was rather old and made of stone. It wasn't anything special, but across the bridge was a metallic gate to the left blocking their way and a pathway dead ahead. Two Shroudes spotted the two and instantly bolted up ahead.

"We better go after them," Nazuchi suggested, getting his bow ready. "You with me, Chalk?"

"You bet!" Chalk smirked, getting his paintbrush. "More butt kicking coming right up!"

They ran after the two Shroudes until they came across a larger area with four tall stones close to the trees. There was only a small amount of sunlight coming down, and it was in the center of the area.

Upon reaching the center, Nazuchi and Chalk found no sight of the Shroudes.

"Hey… Where'd they go?" Chalk gawked. "They were here…"

Before Nazuchi could answer, many Shroudes and Darklings made their appearance from the bushes and trees. The two gaped as they found massive amounts of the dark army surrounding them.

"Well, what do we have here? Two heroes that are about to be exterminated!" one Shroude cackled. "You heroes are always so easily to fool!"

"Fool? …Wait, so you lured us into a trap!" Nazuchi gasped, getting his sword out.

_**"****Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you!"**_ a Shadoo giggled. _**"You're easily outnumbered, and that would only lead to your death a little quicker!"**_

Nazuchi frowned as he slowly put his weapon away. "So, you're just going to kill us? I mean, if you planned on doing that, you would've just attacked me."

"Yes, we could've, but our chances of killing you would be low without this many people," another Shroude explained, aiming its finger at the two. "And I think you're right. We should just get to the main act! So long, heroes!"

A Shroude extended its finger to stab at Nazuchi, but to it and the heroes' surprise, they were left unscathed. Looking down at its finger blade, the Shroude discovered its finger was cut off.

"What!?"

They all felt a strange wind blowing through the air and heard someone land on one of the tall rocks. Everyone looked up at the rock to Nazuchi and Chalk's right to see a brown anthropomorphic hedgehog with quills pointing straight on the back of his head, two strands of fur that was pointing upward and downward and gray eyes. He wore a gray, dirty old cloak that was ripped in many places and was covering the left side of his body. He wore white gloves and had black shoes containing a purple buckle.

Everyone but Nazuchi and Chalk stared at the hedgehog in horror.

"It… It can't be!" one Shroude cried.

_**"****The Dark Slayer's here!"**_ a Shadoo exclaimed.

"That's the Dark Slayer?" Nazuchi gaped.

"He's not what I expected…" Chalk gasped.

The Dark Slayer stared down at the group as the left side of his cloak began to move, revealing a black scabbard with a gray sageo attached containing a katana with a silver guard. The hilt itself had the depiction of a dark dragon as well. Nazuchi and Chalk couldn't help but find this intriguing.

He quickly drew his sword and jumped off the tip of the rock. The Dark Slayer curled up in a ball before landing on the ground, and soon he was out of their sights.

"Where did he…?" Before Nazuchi could finish, there was another breeze that flew by. Soon, all of the enemies were quickly struck with a couple of slashes. Both he and Chalk were left unscathed in the process.

"Cool…" Chalk smiled. "I wanna see more of that!"

The Dark Slayer appeared facing away from the heroes and twirled his katana a couple of times before slowly putting it back in his scabbard. Upon sheathing it, all the enemies were sliced in half and disintegrated.

_"That was amazing…"_ Nazuchi thought. _"But it's weird that he didn't attack us… I wanna know more about this guy…"_

The Dark Slayer slowly turned his head so his eyes met both Nazuchi and Chalk. "You shouldn't be here…"

"So you're the Dark Slayer everyone was talking about…" Nazuchi trailed with uncertainty.

"That's what many people call me," he answered, slowly turning to the two. "My name is Zanex. Zanex the Hedgehog."

"What's a hedgehog?" Chalk whispered to Nazuchi, who gave him a shrug. "Well, anyway, give us that Land Tablet, you…slayer dark thing!"

"Land Tablet? I don't have such a thing." Zanex replied, giving the two a glare. "You two, however, are not wanted in this forest. It's best for you to leave. Be lucky that you weren't caught in that attack."

_"Whoa… He knows about the Land Tablet?"_ Nazuchi thought. "Well, we have a valid reason to be in this forest, Zanex sir. The Land Tablet is somewhere in this forest, and we believe you have it. So…gimme."

"I don't need anything like a Land Tablet to fight. My weapon, Yami, is good enough for me."

"Well even if you don't have it, you still attacked one of those villagers in that town!" Chalk mentioned, aiming his paintbrush at Zanex. "Who do you think you are, killing innocent people?"

Zanex placed his hand on his katana's hilt as he eyed the two. "You two are making a foolish mistake. Do you honestly want to fight _me_ of all people?"

"Well we're the good guys, and you're a bad guy," Nazuchi replied, taking his sword out and pointing the end at the hedgehog. "Look, we thank you for taking out those bad guys, but you're no better if you're hurting people who can't defend themselves!"

The hedgehog looked through the two's eyes and noticed something he wasn't the least surprised with. He couldn't help but smirk. "How pathetic… You two look like you're ready to fight, but I can see the fear in your eyes! Honestly, it would be practically unfair to go all out on you two."

Though they had to admit he was right, they still didn't give him that determined look. "But fine. If it's a fight you want, then it's a fight you'll get, you 'heroes'!"

Nazuchi made the first move and dashed at Zanex and swung, only to have his scabbard easily block the attack. Seeing this, Nazuchi gasped, but he still continued to swing, despite each attack getting blocked.

Before he could swing again, Zanex made his move and whacked him across the face with his scabbard twice before getting ready to draw out his sword. While it was a quick swing, Nazuchi was able to block it with his sword, pushing him back a bit. Chalk tried to jump at Zanex from behind, but all he received was a kick.

Zanex quickly sped back to where the rock was and sheathed his katana before curling up in a ball. After charging up a Spin Dash, he launched himself at Nazuchi and Chalk and sent them flying back. Afterward, Zanex got out of his ball form and placed his hand on Yami's hilt. With one swift unsheathe, he was able to cut through dimensional barriers and create many, small dark beams around Nazuchi and Chalk that exploded, leaving them on the ground.

"Honestly, is this all you can do?" Zanex scoffed, putting his katana away. "I don't even need to try!"

Nazuchi and Chalk slowly got up and saw Zanex throw his sheathed katana in their direction. They ducked under it and saw Zanex run after it. However, this gave Nazuchi a chance to punch the ground and catch the hedgehog into a small cyclone that kept him off guard, allowing Chalk to paralyze him with yellow paint.

"Gotcha!" Chalk smirked, bonking Zanex in the head, while Nazuchi tossed a bomb near his feet and knocking him back from the explosion. Despite this, Zanex easily shook off the paralysis and easily sped to his weapon to retrieve it.

"Not bad, you two... And here I thought this fight would be too easy. Guess I was a bit wrong." Zanex dashed toward the two while slashing the area around him and knocking the two onto the floor.

Chalk got up first and began to shoot green paint at Zanex, who easily blocked the attack by spinning his katana in front of him. The chunks of paint hit the grass, bushes, trees and even the rocks in the process. Nazuchi tried shooting an arrow, but Zanex easily blocked it and let it fly back at him. The arrow barely hit his forehead as he ducked.

However, once he stood back up, he saw Zanex lunging at him, making him bring his sword up in time to block the attack. Both tried pushing each other back, but Zanex decided to step back and swing at him again. Nazuchi saw it coming and swung back, blocking the attack in the process. The two continued to swing, but neither managed to get a hit on each other.

Chalk, meanwhile, could only watch as they parried each other's attacks.

"Well, I better do something," Chalk decided, twirling his paintbrush and aiming it at Zanex. A paint beam fired and managed to hit him before he could strike Nazuchi, causing him to crash into one of the trees. "Oh, yeah! He's finished!"

Before they could celebrate, they saw some of the nearby trees get sliced in half, and out came Zanex in his ball form. He was covered in small bits of red, blue and green paint that left him twitching.

He charged up another Spin Dash and came flying in Chalk's direction this time, who brought his paintbrush in front of him and tried to push him back. The Spin Dash was interrupted when Nazuchi put his Platinum Boots to use and kicked him into one of the rocks to leave a hole through it.

When Zanex jumped through the hole to reach the two heroes, he cast a glare before closing his eyes, and soon a magical, dark blade appeared to his right. His eyes flashed upon open and the blade came flying in their direction. Luckily, Nazuchi managed to block it with his glowing light sword.

"What in the world was that?!" Nazuchi gaped, lowering his sword as he looked at Zanex.

"Those are my Materialized Swords," Zanex answered sheathing his katana. "They help me attack anything from a far range. Though, I rarely use them unless I need to. For example..."

His eyes flashed again, and this time, Materialized Swords were circling around his body. "Get close to me, and expect something painful."

Nazuchi frowned as he put his sword away and took his bow out. He started firing light, fire and ice arrows rapidly at him, though his Materialized Swords only stopped them, and those that got near Zanex were blocked by his scabbard.

"How does he block something with ease with something like that?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Weird..." Chalk replied, firing red paint at Zanex. Some ended up landing on his cloak, setting it on fire, but he easily brushed the fire off his cloak, though now it had a burn mark on it.

"I guess I might as well do away with these blades," Zanex stated, letting them disappear and surround Nazuchi and Chalk instead. They were about to skewer them, but Nazuchi grabbed Chalk and jumped just in time to avoid them. He started to wonder what the results could've been without his Platinum Boots.

"Not too bad, but not good enough!" Nazuchi taunted, landing on the grass with Chalk. "Is that all you've got?"

Zanex ignored Nazuchi while he pulled out a silver gem. The heroes paused for a moment and gazed at the diamond before the hedgehog raised it above him.

"Chaos Control!"

"Chaos Control?" Chalk gawked.

With one bright, silver light, Zanex instantly disappeared from their sights, leaving both Nazuchi and Chalk gasping. Looking around the area, they could've find Zanex in their sights.

"What WAS that!?" Nazuchi exclaimed, looking everywhere. "He suddenly disappeared with that gem! I've never heard of 'Chaos Control' before..."

Just as they were about to turn, they were struck from the side by Zanex's Spin Dash and knocked into one of the trees. However, he wasn't finished just yet. When he got to a far distance, Zanex slashed the air so fast that orbs containing sword slashes appeared around Nazuchi and Chalk and struck them, along with the tree.

"Yeesh... We're getting creamed!" Nazuchi wheezed, slowly getting up. "I think this was all a mistake..."

"Hey, don't give up now, Naz!" Chalk shouted, grabbing the blonde boy's attention. "Sure, he may be fast and stuff, but he's all on his own! We can always try working as a team!"

"And what're we supposed to do? Slow him down?"

"Uh huh! Use whatever ya can to slow him down or something, or maybe I can distract him!"

"Hmmmmm..." Nazuchi pondered for a moment before giving him a nod. "OK. We'll try that."

Chalk turned to Zanex and ran up to him. "Eat paint!"

He started off by trying to paint Zanex red, but it only got on his scabbard when he tried blocking it. However, since it got on his gloves, it ended up burning his hand, causing him to flinch and drop the scabbard. With that, Chalk was able to paint him white and make him frozen solid.

Smirking, Nazuchi made his move and swung his sword to create a flaming Sword Beam that struck Zanex and thawed him out. Before he could pick up his weapon, Nazuchi managed to hit him with a light arrow.

"Oh, I see what you're trying to do now," Zanex hissed, picking up his katana and hitting Chalk in the head with his hilt, while he Chaos Control to teleport over to Nazuchi and strike him with a quick swing of his katana. Unfortunately, he didn't get him attack again, because Chalk managed to jump him from behind and leave him distracted. "Get off of me, you pest!"

While he was distracted, Nazuchi lunged at Zanex and delivered a blow from his sword, leaving a small tear on the hedgehog's cloak when he was knocked back a bit. He managed to throw Chalk off him and dash at Nazuchi with his katana ready. Both clashed, and the two were blocking each other's attacks once again until the two struggled to hold each other off.

Both took a step back and swung at each other again. This time, they were both knocked back from the clash between blades that created a small explosion of light and darkness.

The heroes and Zanex began to breathe heavily, realizing they were all exhausted from the intense battle. At the same time, they had their weapons ready in case if either side tried to attack.

"Well... You two are not as easy to beat as I thought." Zanex wheezed. "You could have listened to me, but you did not. We can easily put this all behind if you leave this place for good."

"We're not going to leave," Nazuchi replied while shaking his head between breaths. "That Forest Tablet is very important to us, because without it, we can never restore this place to the light. The Land Tablets are important for us to save the world and help save Princess Lilia from that Shadow King. ...And hopefully save my home town..."

"Princess...Lilia?" Zanex paused for a moment. "I...know that girl."

Nazuchi's eyes perked up to that statement. "You know Lilia? From where?"

"I used to live in the same town as her and her mother, Queen Silvia. She requested me to take her out of town when a demon came and invaded."

"A plot twist..." Chalk gaped.

"I don't believe it..." Nazuchi gaped. "But... What did you do afterward?"

"I just left. I had no other reason to be in Tagel. I couldn't even make it back to my town in time because I was stopped and brought here. When I ended up here, there were all of these dark enemies lingering around, so I decided to eliminate them with Yami."

"I see... But that doesn't explain why you were hurting some villagers! I want an explanation right now!"

"Apparently some of the dark enemies here were disguised just to get away from me," Zanex took out his silver diamond. "But this Chaos Emerald gave me an idea of where they were."

"Wait... So that person you killed was?"

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you tell us?!" Nazuchi exclaimed.

"Because _you_ never let me," the hedgehog replied, making Nazuchi sweat drop.

"Oh... So you would never hurt those people then... Right?"

"Honestly, I have no reason to attack those people. I hardly even care about them anyway. All I want to do is get out of this forest and return home."

"We created a bridge out of this forest," Chalk explained. "It takes us to the Land of the Whatchamacallits."

"Is that so?" Zanex sheathed his katana and walked away from them. "Then I will be going now."

"Wait, hold on a minute!" Nazuchi shouted. "Don't go just yet!"

Zanex turned around with an annoyed look on his face. "What do you want now, blonde boy?"

"Well... It's just that... Maybe we could use your help. I mean, you obviously don't carry the Land Tablet, but you DO know your way through this forest if you've been exploring this place."

"I have no reason to help you, so no. I just want to leave this place for good and get out of here." Zanex answered coldly, walking away again.

"Hold on a moment," Chalk ran up to the hedgehog and stepped in front of him. "That bridge takes us to that Land of the Whatchamacallits, but it doesn't lead to anywhere else but the Grass and Desert Land."

"Maybe we can help you get back home," Nazuchi suggested. "You could always use some company."

"I'd rather work alone, thank you very much," Zanex replied, shoving the puffball out of the way.

"And what makes you think you know your way home? The Land of the Ancients is completely surrounded by water."

The hedgehog stopped with his mouth agape. "Water...?"

"Yeah. I'm sure it would be hard to swim for many miles."

Zanex turned back to the two with a glare. "Fine. I'll join you on your little quest. But just so you know, I'm not doing this to help you. I'm only doing this just to get home. You understand?"

"Yeesh, what made him change his mind so easily?" Chalk whispered to Nazuchi.

"Really?" Nazuchi smiled.

"Yes, really," Zanex groaned.

"Are you sure?" Chalk smiled as well.

"Yes! Don't try to annoy me like that, because you're going to change my mind!"

Nazuchi sweat dropped as he closed his mouth. _"He sure doesn't sound so nice... I wonder if this was a good idea..."_

_**Character: Zanex the Hedgehog**_

_**Info: Being the one who rescued Princess Lilia from her town, Zanex is capable of traveling at intense speeds. Despite his abilities, he's not much of a friendly person and prefers to work alone.**_

_**Items: Yami – Not much is known about this katana except that it has immense dark powers in it that allow the user to slice through anything. Chaos Emerald – A strange, silver gem that allows Zanex to use strange powers to fight against his foes.**_

"Let's just get going," Zanex suggested. "There's no time to heal our wounds. Let's just find that Land Tablet."

"Good idea," Nazuchi agreed, making his way out of the circular area. "I think we saw a gate earlier close by. Maybe you might have an idea of how to get rid of it?"

"I'll try."

When they had finally reached the metallic gate, Zanex took a quick look at it and smirked. "This is what you were talking about? This should be pretty easy."

Unsheathing his sword, Zanex swung at the gate at such a fast pace that both Nazuchi and Chalk were unable to see where he swung. When he finished, the gate was still in place, leaving the two disappointed.

"Well that was a giant waste of time!" Chalk complained.

Zanex ignored him and sheathed his sword, making the wall fall into many small bits and leaving the two shocked.

"I think I know where this goes. Follow me if you dare." Zanex moved on through the pathway, his cloak blowing through the wind. Nazuchi and Chalk exchanged nods and followed the hedgehog, knowing that he was probably their key to getting the Land Tablet.

* * *

**Man, do I have A LOT to say about this chapter. First off, I think this was a much better start than the Desert Land. Sure, it wasn't as open, but it was still a bit more interesting. **

**I will admit, I'm not really a big fan of creating characters for the Sonic series, especially hedgehog characters. However, considering that Zanex is indeed an ancestor to Sonic, it would only make sense. Don't expect me to do something like that more often. But I find it strange how his personality seems a bit more similar to Shadow, but making him cocky wouldn't be as interesting. Also, Zanex's name comes from Xanax, a drug that's supposed to calm someone down or something (I'm not an expert on medical drugs, I'm afraid).**

**Zanex's abilities are also a bit similar to a character from the Devil May Cry series named Vergil.**

**Next chapter, our heroes, with Zanex on their side, will explore more of the forest and perhaps go into the darker part, perhaps?  
**


	18. Lurking Shadows

Chapter 18: Lurking Shadows

"So, Zanex… I was just wondering…" Nazuchi trailed as he, Chalk and Zanex were walking through the pathway in the forest. "We noticed when we first came here that this area was back to the light. Do you have any idea how that happened? Were you responsible for doing that?"

Getting annoyed with the constant questions being asked, Zanex turned to Nazuchi with a glare. "Yes. I turned this place back to normal. But I only did it because these dark enemies have a more difficult time in the light, making it easier for me to take care of them. Now can you stop with the questions?"

"What about that sword you've got?" Chalk asked, unaware of what Zanex had said before.

"My sword is called Yami. It is a weapon of my town that I took with me to fight against these monsters. It's a very deadly weapon, and its dark powers can help wipe away dark beings. I believe I am capable of using this weapon to strike down anything that stands before me. I'm guessing you two have weapons that fight dark beings, is that correct?"

Nazuchi nodded, pulling out his Sword of Light. "This is the Sword of Light. I managed to pull it out of its pedestal back in that temple by Myrtle Town!" he gazed at the sword and lowered it. "I promised myself that I would use this sword for justice and to stop evil."

"And this is my Spectral Paintbrush," Chalk smiled, holding up his weapon proudly. "It accepted me when we beat up that one boss in the desert, and I use it to paint my enemies, which do weird things to them. I use it for fun!"

"So, what do you use your sword for?" the blonde boy asked.

"That…is not important. I believe we have something a little more important first, right?"

Looking confused, Nazuchi shrugged and put his sword away. They had been walking through this path for about ten minutes, and so far they didn't find anything. While it may have been nice not to run into enemies, both Nazuchi and Chalk couldn't help but feel a bit bored.

"Man, this is just like some kind of hike. It's boring, and it doesn't have much to do." Chalk complained. "When will we get to a bigger area, Naz? This place is getting booooooring."

"Look, I'm sure we'll get to somewhere interesting," Nazuchi assured, turning to his puffball friend. "We…just need to be a little patient, that's all."

They had found a chest where there was some food, and considering that the three had been fighting, they took the food to recover some of their health. Nevertheless, they continued on through the trail until something stood in their way.

"Are those spiders?" Chalk gawked.

"They remind me of those spiders I ran into in that one cave in the Grass Land," Nazuchi recalled, looking at the large, black and white spiders that had red eyes and were standing by a giant cobweb blocking the way. There were about three that stood before them.

Nazuchi made the first move and spun his sword at the spiders. Considering that they were weak to fire, he used fire slashes against them to do away with them. Afterward, he delivered one last fire slash at the cobweb to burn it down. This led them into a much larger area of the forest. There were two ways to go, with one way featuring a loop-de-loop. The other pathway appeared to lead into the darker section of the forest.

"Look at that weird path to the left!" Chalk gaped, pointing to the loop-de-loop. "How do we get through that?!"

"I don't know if we can," Nazuchi realized.

"I believe I can get past it," Zanex stated, approaching the loop-de-loop. "This shouldn't be too hard for someone like myself."

Using his speed, the brown hedgehog ran through the loop and discovered a chest at the end of the path. The only thing he found inside was an item called an Ice Storm, though. Regardless, he returned to the two and showed the item before they took the normal way.

"So, Zanex, did you explore this area before?" Nazuchi asked, looking up at the hedgehog.

"A little bit, but after this area was brought back to the light, I chose to stay around here more," Zanex answered, who didn't even look at the blonde boy. "So don't blame me entirely for not knowing everything in this forest."

Giving him a nod, Nazuchi followed the hedgehog to the border between the light and dark section of the forest. Looking at the darker side, they noticed the leaves, grass and bushes were black and surrounded in dark smoke. The sky was also red, just like the previous two lands.

Zanex soon sensed something approaching them. Using his scabbard, he smacked both Nazuchi and Chalk to the floor and quickly jumped in the air. Two quick figures passed them and headed for the dark section. Once they were gone, Zanex landed on the ground.

"Hey! What was that for?!" exclaimed Nazuchi, who slowly got up.

"There were two figures coming by, so I had no choice but to throw you both to the ground," Zanex answered.

"Oh, so you saved us," Chalk realized.

"I wasn't trying to save you. I just know that I can't go home without your help."

Realizing this, Nazuchi couldn't help but glare at him. _"Just because of that? Sounds pretty selfish… But regardless, he did at least prevent us from getting a serious injury. …Or worse."_

The three stepped into the dark side and felt the air grow heavier and colder. As if things couldn't have gotten worse, dark clouds covered the red sky, and soon thunder could be heard. Afterward, it started to pour rain.

"Uh oh…" Chalk trailed, feeling the raindrops land on his head. "It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is-"

"Chalk, maybe it'd be best if you saved that for later…" Nazuchi suggested, feeling something coming by.

The two figures that had sped by before returned, but rather than charging into the three, they stopped to get a glimpse of them. They were shadow beings with red eyes with shoulder pads with a blade on them, along with glowing boots that gave them speed. They were also the height of Zanex.

"Shadoo Runners," Zanex mumbled, unsheathing his katana.

The two enemies cackled and quickly charged at them. However, a single swing from Zanex's blade was enough to stop them and disintegrate them. Feeling satisfied, Zanex sheathed his weapon.

"How did you know when to hit them?" Nazuchi gaped.

"When you can run fast, you can tell when another fast being is about to approach," Zanex answered. "It makes fighting pretty easy. I also ran into these before, so I would know from experience with them."

"Fair enough… Well, let's see what's through this dark forest. Hopefully it doesn't rain forever…"

One thing they noticed was a tree to the right corner by a bunch of other trees. Compared to the others, this one was much shorter and had black apples hanging from some small branches. A couple of Shadoo and Shadoo Blades were munching on some of them, along with a black, bush-like enemy with yellow eyes called a Twilack.

Spotting the three, the enemies stopped monkeying around and began to charge at them. One Shadoo grabbed a hold of Nazuchi's leg after stretching its arm and made him fall over on his back. The Twilack fired some razor leaves in Chalk's direction, and two Shadoo Blades charged at Zanex.

_**"****We're going to enjoy crushing you three!"**_ a Shadoo Blade cackled.

"I'm afraid you won't be doing any of that," Zanxx stated, drawing his blade. "I believe it'll be you people who will be crushed, and I don't plan on holding back."

He raised his katana just in time to block the Shadoo Blade's rolling attack, and with a couple of slashes, the enemy was destroyed in an instant. He sheathed his katana and used it to smack some of the other enemies charging at him. Zanax eventually drew it out for a quick slash attack on two Shadoos to do away with them. For the Twilack, a Spin Dash helped knock it into the apple tree.

While the Shadoo holding Nazuchi was distracted, the blonde boy pushed himself up and kicked the Shadoo to knock it onto the ground. With one downward thrust from his sword, it was destroyed. Chalk ran toward the Twilack and painted it red, scorching and defeating it. Unfortunately, this set the apple tree on fire.

"You idiot! Why did you do that?!" Zanax exclaimed.

"Calm down! I was doing what destiny told me!" Chalk answered.

"Destiny told you to burn down an apple tree?" Nazuchi gawked, cocking his head.

"Well… Err… I don't know about the tree, but maybe that bush enemy." Chalk's reply only made Nazuchi face palm in response, while Zanex appeared a bit annoyed. "But hey! I can take care of it!"

Aiming his paintbrush at the burning tree, Chalk was about to shoot blue paint, until he noticed the rain do the job for him. "…Or the rain could take care of the fire. That works too!"

While Chalk began to chuckle sheepishly, one of the Shadoo Blades remaining took this opportunity to strike him. Nazuchi took notice of it and shot a fire arrow that stopped the Shadoo Blade and set it on fire. Of course, the rain ended up taking care of the flames, but Chalk ended up finishing it off when he accidentally jabbed the bottom of his paintbrush at the Shadoo Blade while facing away from it. Hearing the enemy explode into darkness, Chalk turned around and only saw the remaining black smoke from the enemy before it slowly faded away.

"Huh… Well, I don't know what that was, but I guess I sure showed it who's boss!"

Choosing not to even question Chalk, Zanex decided to carry on. Nazuchi followed him, with Chalk behind him. This time, they decided to pick up the pace a bit and were led to a small cliff leading down to a lower section of the forest. One thing for sure was that up ahead in the lower section was a small staircase that appeared to be very old.

"Hey, that's strange… I'd never expect there to be something like that in a forest." Nazuchi commented, looking down from the cliff's edge. "Though… I don't like the drop…"

"It's not a steep cliff, so you should be fine," Zanex assured, dropping down from the cliff and onto the wet grass below. He slowly stood up and didn't appear to be harmed. "There's another ledge nearby that's slightly higher than where I'm standing. You can drop there if you're too much of a coward."

Sighing, Nazuchi chose to make the big drop on his own. He leaped off the cliff and landed next to Zanex. The only difference was that his landing involved him hitting the ground headfirst. Chalk soon landed afterward, except his landing was softer.

"Wow, I appreciate the cushion you gave me to help me land safely, Zanos!" Chalk smiled.

"I didn't give you anything," Zanex replied coldly. "And the name's _Zanex_. Get it right, kid."

"Chalk… Can you get off of me?" Nazuchi moaned, trying to stand up. Chalk obeyed and stepped off to allow his teammate to stand up. Wiping the dirt left on him, Nazuchi took a look at the small staircase ahead. "Is that the right way to go?"

"That's our only option so far."

The three headed up the staircase and noticed a fountain up ahead in a more open area. There was also an old building that resembled a church. Nazuchi stared at the water and scooped some out of the fountain to share at it. Feeling that it would be unsafe to drink, he let the water go back into the fountain.

With nothing else left to do, the heroes chose to go inside the church. It wasn't very big, and there weren't many seats left in the building, but there was an organ at the end of the room, along with a door to the left corner. It was also dry, with the exception of a few leaks coming from the ceiling.

"It's very nice to be somewhere dry for a change," Nazuchi smiled, removing his hat and shaking any water left in his hair. He squeezed his hat to let some water come out before putting it back on. "Though I never knew how difficult nature can be at times…"

Zanex quickly shook his cloak to get any water off, then he proceeded over to the door ahead, only to be disappointed. "Great… This door appears to be blocked by some dark force. Maybe if I sliced this door…"

Drawing his katana, Zanex attempted to slice it open, but to no avail. "What?! Yami won't work? But this thing can slice through anything!"

"Guess you were wrong," Nazuchi replied, crossing his arms. "If we can't bust through it, then what should we do?"

Near the door, Chalk discovered some writing on the wall. While the two were pondering, he decided to give it a little read.

_To those who wish to maketh thy way through here, thou must findeth the enemy with the wings and defeat it. Only then will thy way be clear._

"Hey, guys! Maybe this writing might give us an idea!" Chalk proclaimed, making the two look over at it. After reading it a couple of times, Nazuchi smiled and looked back at the way they came in.

"Looks like we just need to find this enemy and beat it," Nazuchi stated. "So I'm guessing there's another way to go in this area…"

The sound of thunder echoed in the room as they saw a bright flash through one of the windows. Both Nazuchi and Chalk were a bit startled, while Zanex simply sped to the door they came through. They exited the church and were back in the pouring rain, along with the thunderstorm booming in the forest.

"Now we have a storm to deal with? That stinks." Chalk frowned.

"Well that's nature. Deal with it." Zanex said, scanning the area as they walked down the stone staircase. To their left, they discovered another pathway. "There. Let's check that way."

Agreeing, Nazuchi and Chalk followed Zanex, not realizing that they were being watched by three shadows lurking underground.

"So, those brats managed to get that Dark Slayer on their side. This is not good news." a voice hissed, which revealed to be Beldam once she emerged from the shadows. "This was not how the king's plan was supposed to go!"

"Guhhh!" grunted Marilyn.

"Yes, I agree, Marilyn. Not all hope is lost just yet. We still have our little plan." the eldest Shadow Siren took out her paper and scanned it. "Ah, yes… Our little idea of creating this weather... I must say, Marilyn, you are doing a great job with this storm! This'll definitely slow them down for sure!"

Marilyn gave her a nod before raising her arms and making lightning strike the ground nearby. Beldam cackled and checked her plans again.

"Now… My magic will be enough to create a dangerous and cold wind that will blow those heroes away and possibly even freeze them to death! And as for you, Vivian… You're responsible for setting the forest on fire."

"But, sis… I feel like there's something wrong with your, um, plan…" Vivian trailed nervously.

"A flaw in my plan? That's impossible!" Beldam sneered. "Everything about this plan is _flawless_! And what do _you_ find the problem to be, Vivian?"

"It's just that… If there's a storm and a wind, would that just get rid of the fire I would be setting to this forest? This rain is pretty heavy, you know…"

Indeed it was. In fact, Vivian had been holding onto her red and white-striped hat this entire time thanks to a slightly strong wind brewing in the forest. Beldam growled at her, but soon noticed Marilyn was holding her yellow and white-striped hat.

"Fine! We'll discuss this in the shadows, you baby." Beldam growled, glaring at Vivian before sinking into the shadows. Her sisters followed, and soon they were back to discussing their plan.

* * *

**Next area-**

"Euughh… I think I've got some mud on my boots." Nazuchi realized, noticing the mud on his boots, along with the footprints made. "This isn't going to be nice for these cool-looking boots."

"Stop complaining about it," Zanex suggested. "Your complaining is going to make me leave you two in this forest."

Nazuchi quickly stopped complaining and followed Zanex to another cliff. However, the big difference here was that it was much steeper, and below was a dark river. Both Nazuchi and Chalk gulped until they noticed some tall, stone pillars that acted like platforms leading over to the other side.

For Zanex, it hardly took any effort to make his way across the platforms and to the other side. But for the other two, their eyes widened as they looked down.

"How do we get across this huge chasm?" Nazuchi stammered, shaking in fear. Chalk was shaking as well, but something suddenly struck his mind. He remembered something back in those desert ruins, and he remembered it being fun.

A smile was soon on Chalk's face as he took out his paintbrush and created an icy road he began to slide across that helped him get to the other side. Zanex was even left surprised by this.

"Why didn't I think of this before?" Chalk asked, getting off the icy road and jumping over by Zanex. "Good thing I remembered something like that, or else I'd be toast! Now Nazgo just needs to get across."

Nazuchi looked back at the tall pillars and then at his Platinum Boots. _"Hmmmmm… I wonder… Will my Platinum Boots help me get across? I know it helped me in those ruins, that's for sure…"_

Taking a deep breath, Nazuchi made a big leap over the chasm and landed on one of the pillars. Noticing he was safe, he jumped across the other pillars until he was able to reach the other side.

"Phew! Thanks goodness for these Platinum Boots!" Nazuchi sighed. "If it weren't for these, I'd probably be falling to my doom by now!"

Turning their attention ahead, they noticed a statue blocking their way. Zanex was about to slice it, but Nazuchi chose to step in and deliver a kick to it to leave it cracked, and then a punch from his gauntlets to turn it to dust. Chalk smiled at the dust left behind, while Zanex was hardly impressed.

As they forged onward through the trail, they felt the rain get much heavier, as well as the thunder getting louder. Another thing that left them surprised was the cold wind blowing around them. Sure, they found it cold before, but not _this_ cold.

"Say, guys… Do you feel like things have gotten a little cool here?" Nazuchi asked, slightly shivering.

"Well, I guess the forest is pretty cool," Chalk remarked.

"That's not what I meant, Chalk. I mean things are getting a little cold."

"Yes, I can feel the wind getting much colder," Zanex noted, his cloak blowing through the wind. He was about to say another word until he noticed two Twilacks jump from the bushes and ambush them. One tried firing a razor leaf at Zanex, but his scabbard blocked it, allowing Nazuchi to jump over him and bring his sword down on the first Twilack.

After Zanex finished off the remaining Twilack, they moved onward. There wasn't much else in the way, but they eventually were brought into a more open area with a few bushes and even a statue of the evil Omega Shroude. Nazuchi approached the statue and tried smashing it with a kick and punch, but it didn't appear to work.

"What a strange statue…" Nazuchi trailed. "This statue reminds me of those enemies we've faced before, but this one looks a lot different compared to them. You think it could be their leader?"

"Hey! Look what the statue's holding!" Chalk gasped, pointing to the stone tablet it held. Nazuchi looked up and gasped.

"The Land Tablet! Wow! I can't believe it's here! …Though, it should be glowing, I think."

Zanex stared at the statue for a moment. He inspected it for a couple of seconds until he placed his hand on the hilt of Yami. "I suggest you two get out of the way if you want to avoid getting hurt…"

Nazuchi and Chalk stopped for a moment and stepped out of the way, with Chalk mumbling, "I guess climbing it was not the best solution…"

Drawing his katana, Zanex sliced the statue multiple times and sheathed his katana to turn it into dust. To their surprise, a staircase was revealed.

"So I'm guessing that Land Tablet was fake... That stinks. Well, at least we'll be someplace dry for a change." Nazuchi shrugged, going down the stairway first. It led them into a dark, narrow hallway with torches on the walls providing dark flames rather than red. The floor, walls and ceiling were also a stone gray with many diamond-shaped symbols being on the walls.

Because it was difficult to see, Nazuchi held his sword close to him to provide a decent amount of light. Zanex also decided to take things a bit slower and kept his eye on Nazuchi's sword.

Unfortunately, they soon found a left and right pathway to go to, and now the three were debating which way to go.

"I say the right!" Chalk declared. "Because the right is the right way to go!"

"Oh, no… We're not rehashing jokes, Chalk." Nazuchi groaned. "That's already gotten old."

"We'll take the left way," Zanex stated. "My Chaos Emerald is detecting something in the left direction. Taking the right way will only be a waste of time."

Though Chalk wanted to object, he shrugged and followed the two in the left direction. The only thing they found were a few bats that flew past them, along with some slight turns. It wasn't until they reached the end of the passageway where they found some decent light.

Many red torches lit up the room, and a couple of Shroudes were phasing through the floor, walls and ceiling. At the end of the room was a shadow being with pointy fingers, a dark purple helmet with two, bat-like horns, dark purple gauntlets and boots, and demonic, bat-like wings. Strangely, this creature was not tall, but a bit shorter than Zanex.

"Hmmmmm… Didn't that one writing in that church mention something about defeating the one with the wings?" Nazuchi whispered.

"Yeah. That must be the one!" Chalk whispered back.

The two were about to charge, but Zanex grabbed them and pulled them back. "Don't even try that. It's too risky. We need to formulate a plan first if we're going to do this correctly."

"You mean take on those Shroudes first?" Nazuchi wondered, who received a nod from Zanex.

"Yes, but I'll focus on them. You two can focus on that demon. With the Shroudes focusing on me, and you two focusing on the demon, things might not be easy for them."

"Sounds like a plan!" Chalk cheered. "Let's go kick some butt, Nazub!"

The two charged straight at the winged enemy known as the Gargolmon. Upon turning, it spotted Nazuchi and Chalk and let out a screech to alarm the Shroudes in the area. They immediately began to fly toward the two heroes and attack. However, Zanex made his move and let his Materialized Swords do the job by grabbing their attention.

Zanex drew his blade as the Shroudes charged at him. He managed to take out one with a single swing, but one managed to strike him from behind with its finger blade. With him off guard, the Shroudes started to attack and lay the smack on him.

"Oh, no! Zanex is in trouble!" Nazuchi cried, seeing the Shroudes gain up on him. Before turning, he was struck by a dark, magic blast from the Gargolmon.

"Those demons can take care of him! For now, you two are mine!" the Gargolmon roared, creating a scepter to attack Nazuchi with. Chalk managed to paint it yellow and leave the dark being paralyzed, giving Nazuchi the opportunity to strike his opponent with a couple of light slashes.

Once Chalk painted the Gargolmon white, they believed it was defeated, so they turned back to the Shroudes attacking Zanex. That was, until they found themselves struck by the Gargolmon's dark magic.

Turning back to the monster, it let out a cackle and smacked Chalk with its scepter. The Gargolmon was about to charge at Nazuchi, but he got up just in time and kicked it into the wall.

"Time to end this!" Nazuchi shouted, driving his light sword into the Gargolmon. Once the light enveloped the dark creature, a small explosion emitted from it, destroying the Gargolmon completely. "Yeah! We did it! Now let's go help Zanex!"

Turning to the Shroudes, they saw Zanex struggle to get up. However, he still had a chance to take out his Chaos Emerald, and with that, he shouted, "Chaos Control!"

Before Nazuchi and Chalk could reach the Shroudes, everything suddenly froze in time with the exception of Zanex. He quickly got up and jumped out of the Shroudes' sights before reverting time back to normal.

Once the Shroudes discovered their target was missing, they were left in shock.

"Wait… Where'd our target go?!"

"I don't know… He was right here a moment ago!"

"Over here," Zanex hissed, making the Shroudes turn to the glaring hedgehog. "You had your fun. Now it's my turn."

With a swift motion of his katana, the Shroudes found their eyes widen when they found themselves struck by the slicing orb created by Zanex. With a quick sheath, they were eradicated.

"Oh, wow… And here I thought you would need our help." Nazuchi gawked. "You were in trouble for a moment…"

"Your help wouldn't do that much help. You would just be in the way." Zanex stated. "Anyway, did you defeat that enemy?"

"Sure did!" Chalk smiled. "So, do we get to leave this place?"

"Looks like it. I mean, defeating that one enemy should allow us to move on through that door in the church."

Agreeing, the three heroes made their exit out of the strange, dark hallway.

* * *

**Church-**

Nazuchi kicked the door to the church open and quickly ran inside, relieved to be out of the rain. Chalk and Zanex came in afterward and shut the door behind them to prevent any more rain from coming.

"Yeesh… What a storm out there!" Nazuchi exclaimed. "The rain's gotten progressively worse, and it's certainly gotten much colder out there! This weather sure is bad, don't you think?"

Zanex raised a finger to speak, but his words were halted when he heard the organ being played. Turning his attention to the organ, he quickly unsheathed his sword and had two Materialized Swords summoned next to him. Just to be on the same side, Nazuchi took his sword out too.

They slowly approached the organ, trying their best not to make any noise. The lightning nearly startled Nazuchi and Chalk, but the look Zanex gave them was enough to prevent them from making any noise.

As soon as they got a closer look at the organ, they discovered a Shadoo was playing it. However, unlike the other ones, this one appeared to be wearing a white, curly wig and a monocle. Once the Shadoo noticed them, he gave them a glare.

_**"****Can I help you, sirs? Can't you see I'm playing my masterpiece?" **_the Shadoo asked.

"Wait… So you're not going to attack us?" Nazuchi gawked.

_**"****Why would I try to attack you? Fighting is too foolish and dirty for my interests. The art of music is much better to my liking. So, will you do me a favor and leave me to play my music?"**_

"Ooh! Can you play me a song?" Chalk asked, getting a piece of paper and doodling some music in red paint. Upon handing it to the Shadoo, it burnt up. "…Oh, never mind then."

_**"****It didn't seem to be anything great anyway," **_the Shadoo stated. _**"Now, if you'll excuse me, I wish to go back to playing."**_

Once it was back to playing the organ, the three heroes were left with no choice but to enter the door beside the organ. To their surprise, they noticed the rain stop, and the dark clouds were no longer in sight. What they did spot, however, a statue up ahead in the center of the area. Approaching the tall statue, they noticed its shadow in front of them.

"Hey! I think there's something written here!" Nazuchi noticed, looking at the plaque on the statue. It had a red, glowing trim around it too. Above it was also a small Piranha Plant's head that stuck out. "Let's see what it has to say!"

_To escape this great maze, one must find where the light shines._

"Shining light? What the heck does that mean?" Chalk wondered.

"A very interesting puzzle…" Zanex trailed. "I don't see any light here…"

Nazuchi looked up at the sky and then looked back at the shadow they stood in. "Hey, guys… Do you think this shadow has to do something about what that plaque said?"

"It could be…" the hedgehog pondered. "When the sun shines down, a shadow might be created _behind_ a figure. My only suggestion would be to go in the direction _opposite_ of where the shadow is on the statue."

"Then… We must go straight ahead!" Chalk declared, walking around the statue and spotting a trail just up ahead. There were also two other trails to their left and right, but since the shadow was not pointing in the opposite of those two, they ignored them and moved straight.

They were left surprised when they were brought into another similar-looking area to the other.

"Wait… Huh? Did we do something wrong?" Nazuchi guffawed.

"Doesn't look like it," Chalk noticed, pointing to the statue's shadow, which was pointing to the left. "See? I think we went the right way!"

"Looks like we have to take the right trail this time," Zanex deduced, taking the right trail. The other two followed him into another familiar area, but now the shadow was pointing straight ahead.

"…Wait, we need to go back?" Nazuchi gawked. "That…doesn't make sense. How are we supposed to know if it'll take us to the correct area?"

"That's not what's important, blonde boy. Just go the correct way."

Choosing not to object, Nazuchi began to go back the way he came, bringing them into another similar area. This time, the shadow was pointing to the left yet again. While it gave the thirteen-year-old the thought that they just went backwards, this proved to be wrong when they entered the right trail and were brought to a different area.

Sadly, the rain clouds and the storm had returned to haunt them, and the cold wind made both Nazuchi and Chalk shiver. Zanex, however, did not let the storm get in his way and continued to trudge onward.

"Ugh… I can't believe when we believe the storm is gone, it had to return again." Nazuchi groaned. "This is just great…"

"And this wind is getting on my nerves!" Chalk complained.

Suddenly, something sparked in Nazuchi's mind as if he remembered something. "Hey, wait! I almost forgot about that Magical Map! Maybe it might say something about where a Crystal Star is!"

"Crystal Star?" Zanex gawked. "What on earth do you mean?"

"It's a star created by the Shadow Queen to basically rule the world. However, I think they got separated, so we chose to look for them." Nazuchi noticed the anger in Zanex's eyes upon saying "Shadow Queen". "Hey, what's wrong, Zanex?"

The anger suddenly stopped sparking in Zanex's mind as he started to calm down. "Nothing… Just forget about that."

"OK…" Nazuchi took out the map, using his sword as a means to prevent the map from getting wet. "…No way! This map says that a gold Crystal Star is somewhere close by! Man, were we lucky or what?"

"Oh, boy! And we're going to get it before those other guys!" Chalk cheered. "Suckers!"

While the three walked through the long trail, up on a cliff above the trees, three figures rose from the shadows and looked down at the three underneath a few trees.

"Mmmmwee hee hee hee! I knew this was a good idea!" Beldam cackled, noticing Nazuchi and Chalk shiver. "Just look at those fools! They're already horrified with this storm! Marilyn, get cracking, will you?"

"Guh-huh!" Marilyn grunted, raising her arms and making lightning strike in the distance. Vivian, meanwhile, couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the travelers.

"Sis, is all of this really necessary?" Vivian asked with uncertainty.

"Are you being serious, Vivian?" Beldam guffawed, turning to her youngest sister. "Do you know who these people are? They're trying to go after our king! Should we just watch them succeed in their goals, or should we do something to make them fail and destroy them?"

"Well, I know we should stop them and all, but…"

"Then it's your turn to do your part. Release your fire powers onto these trees and burn the forest down! That should be enough to end them!" the eldest Shadow Siren grinned evilly. "Then our king and queen shall reward us greatly!"

"But, Beldam… I'm not so sure if this will work. I mean, it's raining and all…"

"You honestly believe I would be that dumb to realize that, Vivian? Oh, you're going to be getting a harsh punishment when we get back home, my ugly! Now get to work right away! I don't have much patience for this!"

Saddened, Vivian raised her finger while the rain stopped, and her fire magic soon did the job.

For Nazuchi, Chalk and Zanex, they had noticed the rain stop, as well as the thunder and lightning. For the two former, they were relieved, while Zanex couldn't care less.

"Well, with no storm, I think things might be a bit easier from here," Nazuchi smiled. "So, from what I can see here, the Crystal Star is located…"

He paused for a moment and began to smell the air, noticing it felt different. Looking up at the sky, he could see smoke. "Hey, guys… Did you see smoke in this area before?"

"Nope!" Chalk answered proudly.

"I didn't… Something's not right…" Zanex started to squint as he noticed the smoke getting closer. For some reason, some trees were beginning to light on fire. Zanex soon realized what was going on and his eyes widened in shock. "This whole place is on fire! We need to get out of here immediately!"

"What!?" Nazuchi gaped, seeing the trees burn up. "Oh, geez! This isn't good!"

The three did their best to continue running through the trail, knowing that it was their safest option. Zanex started to increase his speed and ended up going ahead of both Nazuchi and Chalk.

"Hey! Is he seriously leaving us behind?!" the blonde boy guffawed.

"That's not right!" Chalk exclaimed. "HEY! COME BACK HERE!"

Zanex only moved faster from here, not caring about any falling branches that were about to fall in his way. However, when he looked back and noticed Nazuchi and Chalk were a bit far behind, he was left annoyed.

_"Grrrrr… I need those two to help me. …Fine, I'll go back." _

He quickly ran back in the opposite direction and quickly reached Nazuchi and Chalk in about five seconds. "Look, just grab onto my arms and don't let go."

Obeying, both Nazuchi and Chalk grabbed his arms, and they found themselves moving at a much faster pace through the burning forest. Nazuchi did his best to keep his hat from falling off, and Chalk did his best not to let go of his Spectral Paintbrush.

Unfortunately, this didn't last very long. Zanex didn't see a small tree branch in his way, causing him to trip and fall over, with Nazuchi and Chalk falling over as well. They quickly got up and noticed the fire getting much bigger.

"Oh, geez… We're screwed!" Chalk gulped.

"Great… I guess it's the end for us." Zanex grumbled.

Nazuchi looked around for a way to escape until he looked behind him and noticed a cracked rock. Seeing this as an opportunity, he took out a bomb and threw it at the rock to let it explode. A small stairway was revealed to be underneath the rock.

"Guys! There still might be some hope left! We can go down here!" Nazuchi cried, pointing to the stairway.

"Good. We can hide in there until the fire's gone." Zanex said, running down the stairway. Once Nazuchi and Chalk entered, they were safe from the fire.

"Mmmmmwee hee hee hee! Just look at this fire!" Beldam cackled from the cliff's edge. "See, Vivian, this is what you should be doing more of! I'm sure this was enough to make them perish!"

"Oh… I guess so…" Vivian trailed, both astounded and saddened by the forest fire. Beldam noticed the solemn in her voice and glared at her.

"Why do you sound so unhappy? Our job is to kill these pests, you worm! You should be enjoying that!"

"But… It just doesn't feel right to burn down a whole forest and living people…"

"What?! We shouldn't be caring about something like that, you twit! We're heartless demons created to destroy all in the way without a sense of care! See, this is why you're always bringing us down! Just for that, I'm adding another punishment for you when we go home! You understand me?!"

"I… Yes, sis…" Vivian sighed.

"Good! We have no reason to be here now, my lovelies. Let us make our exit!" Beldam declared, sinking into the shadows.

"Guh-huh!" Marilyn grunted, following her sister.

Vivian took one last look at the forest fire in a sense of remorse. Despite being saddened, she was almost surprised that her fire powers could do that, but that was the least of her importance at the moment.

"I'm sorry…" she muttered before going into the shadows.

* * *

**Well this chapter was pretty fun to write. I didn't focus too much on the action here and rather the exploration, which isn't so bad.**

**Next up... Well, I suppose you'll see for yourself. :P**


	19. The Dead Forest

Chapter 19: The Dead Forest

Fifteen minutes had passed since the forest had suddenly burst on fire. The three heroes were left sitting in a small, dark room that they were lucky to find during the forest fire. Nazuchi kept his sword centered around them so they could at least see each other. However, it was at this moment they heard the fires calm down.

"Should we… Should we check and see what happened?" Nazuchi asked.

"Yeah! I don't like this dangy place! Too dark!" Chalk complained.

"Well, it's been fifteen minutes, and I don't hear much fire out there," Zanex mentioned, slowly standing up from the crate he sat on. "Fine. Let's get out of here."

The other two stood up and walked up the small staircase, only to see a large landscape with nothing but gray ash remaining on the ground, as well as some slight smoke that was rising into the sky. There were no signs of trees or grass remaining, leaving Nazuchi and Chalk in shock. Zanex was also left surprised too.

"I don't believe it… Everything's all gone…" Nazuchi gasped. "Why would someone do something like this? What were they achieving?"

"This is definitely not a pretty sight…" Chalk trailed. "It feels so empty here…"

"Obviously there was someone who was trying to stop us," Zanex stated. "It would be pretty obvious. The harsh weather we endured? The fire? Someone knew of our presence and was trying to take us out this way."

"You are certainly right, my furry friend."

Looking up at the cliff above them, the three heroes' eyes caught on a gray mouse wearing a black mask. The mouse jumped down from the cliff and landed near the heroes. His eyes caught Nazuchi, making him grin.

"Why hello there, friend! It's been quite a while, hasn't it?"

"Huh? …Wait, you're that mouse Cheezit, right?" Nazuchi gaped. "I remember seeing you in that castle!"

"You know this mouse?" Zanex asked, lowering his weapon. "So I'm guessing he's not an enemy."

"Well, I don't know if I'd consider him to be a 'friend', but more of a…well, acquaintance. I think he's a thief."

"A thief? Cool!" Chalk smiled, running up to the mouse thief. "So, did you steal some stuff?"

"Well, I have stolen a few things here and now…" Cheezit trailed, stepping away from Chalk. "I have something quite interesting to tell you guys! I saw three, shadowy figures twenty minutes ago lurking on that cliff. They were using their magical powers to create a cold wind, brew up a storm, and set this forest on fire. Unfortunately, though, it appears they've gotten away…"

Nazuchi frowned before looking back at the hiding place. Cheezit had caught his eyes staring at the hideout and said, "Ah, so you decided to hide in there, yes? You know, that was a place I put all my treasure I found in this place, just like I do in every other place before taking it with me."

"Oh, really?" Nazuchi gasped. "That's interesting… But the place was too dark to see. We weren't planning on taking anything, though."

"Well, I did stumble upon something in there… Here, let me show you." Cheezit escorted the three heroes back into the small hideout and clapped his hands to bring light into the hideout. There were many small crates in the corners of the room, and the floor was nothing but dirt. In the far end of the room, however, was a dark orb.

"Yo, Naz! Isn't that the orbs we usually hit to restore light to an area?" Chalk asked.

"Yeah… All right! Stand out of the way, Cheezit! I've got something to do!" Drawing his sword, Nazuchi dashed toward the dark orb and swung at it with full force, driving any darkness from the orb away and replacing it with a bright light. When they checked outside, they saw the red sky replaced with a beautiful, blue sky.

Unfortunately, the forest still remained burned down as ever, leaving the heroes disappointed.

"Oh… Well at least it's not in darkness. Better than nothing, I guess?" the blonde boy shrugged.

"I don't think we can save this forest," Zanex stated before turning to the mouse. "Do you know anything else?"

"Well, if you're looking for a Land Tablet, then I might just know where you can find it!" Cheezit smirked, bringing some of their hopes up. "If you continue your way through this dead forest, then you will find the Wizard's Tower. It's a tower filled with all sorts of magic that was taken over by those dark goons. You could say that inside, it's quite…magical."

"Yeah! Let's go!" Chalk cheered, now running onward before Nazuchi grabbed him and pulled him back.

"Chalk, we're going together," Nazuchi informed.

"Oh… Right."

"If you people need any help, feel free to come back here and ask me," Cheezit said, going back to his hideout, but not before popping his head out of the hideout. "But you must be quick, because I may be leaving this place very soon!"

With him gone, the three heroes turned their attention back to the dead forest. Nazuchi pulled out the Magical Map and noticed it was still glowing. "Oh… Well, looks like the Crystal Star is still here, guys! Maybe we can get a hold of that while we're here! It could be a lot easier now…"

Nazuchi began to walk through the area while still looking down at the map. With the trees gone, there was no point in following the trail. There was a large hill up ahead they decided to walk up first. At the top of the hill, they got a large few of the landscape below, along with the gray ash. They noticed far ahead, there was some purple in the sky.

"I'm guessing the Wizard's Tower is where that purple stuff in the sky is," Nazuchi deduced. "And I'm betting the Crystal Star is somewhere near there!"

To the left, they noticed a trail leading over to a metallic gate. Nazuchi had suggested checking that area first, so he ran down the hill and followed the trail leading to the gate. Wanting to make this easier, Zanex curled up in a ball and launched himself down the hill and over to the gate before the others could reach it.

"Whoa… How'd you catch up?" Nazuchi gaped, slightly exhausted from running, while Zanex looked hardly tired.

"I told you that I'm fast, and because of that incline, it helped me move faster," Zanex answered. "Now get out of the way. I'm going to take care of this gate."

Nazuchi and Chalk stepped out of the way and allowed Zanex to slice the metallic gate into dust, clearing the way. They made their way through the trail and were eventually greeted with a graveyard. It wasn't a large one, but there was one large gravestone in the end of the square-shaped area.

"A graveyard… Well… This will be…interesting." Chalk said, sweating in the process. "Maybe you guys can move on while I stay here!"

"Why?" Nazuchi wondered.

"Well… You see… Graveyards are pretty creepy. I'm an important person and all, Nazgoup! Maybe I'll just drink some blue paint so I don't run into any trouble!"

Face palming, Nazuchi grabbed Chalk and dragged him into the graveyard with him and Zanex. While he dragged the puffball, he also checked the map and noticed it glowing. Perhaps the star was located somewhere in this graveyard…

"Hey, what's that large gravestone ahead anyway?" Nazuchi asked, making his way over to the gravestone. "Why is it so big compared to the others?"

When the three got a closer look, they noticed it looked much different than the other gravestones. Not just in size, but in appearance. The other ones were more grayish, and this one was much darker with no words labeled.

"Wait… I don't know if this is really a gravestone…" Zanex trailed, gripping his scabbard tightly.

The graveyard began to shake violently as a ripple in the large stone appeared before them. From what they could see, Dry Bones had walked out of the portal, but unlike a regular one, this one was a lot bigger in size and was black with red eyes. It also had bat-like wings, small, devil-like horns on its head, and a longer tail.

"I sense a disturbance in this graveyard…" the Dry Bones trailed, looking around the area. When it looked up at the sky, it noticed it was back to normal. "That's strange… Was this place covered in the darkness a moment ago?"

"Yes, it certainly was."

The Dry Bones looked down and spotted the three heroes taking their weapons out. "Interesting… So you are the chosen ones?"

"Chosen ones? I don't understand what you're talking about." Zanex replied, pointing Yami at the Dry Bones.

"This thing looks just like a Dry Bones, but a bit different…" Nazuchi trailed.

"That's because I surpass the weak Dry Bones. I'm what's known as a Demon Bones. Obviously you have not seen something like me before, so this should be a treat… Maybe the queen will be pleased when I bring her back three fallen heroes!"

"Yeah right!" Chalk spat. "I think it's YOU who will fall! And then we're going to step on you!"

"…Step on him?" Nazuchi gawked. "Actually, forget that. Let's focus on the more important thing here. Heck, with Zanex here, maybe this might be a lot easier!"

"Heh heh… Well, we'll see about that." the Demon Bones chuckled, summoning a black club in the shape of a bone. "It's bonifying time!"

Before the heroes could question the Demon Bones's choice of words (and that the word has nothing to do with bones), they jumped out of the way when the Demon Bones threw its bone club to the ground. Zanex easily jumped up to its head and used his scabbard to easily smack it, leaving it dazed for a brief moment. Nazuchi got his bow ready and fired a barrage of light arrows at the Demon Bones.

"Hmmmm… Arrows don't seem to be working that well here… I guess I might have to resort to other tactics." Nazuchi decided, running up to the Demon Bones while it was trying to smack Zanex in the air and used his Platinum Boots to step on the Demon Bones's foot.

With the mini-boss hopping around and holding its left foot in pain, this gave Chalk the opportunity to paint it red and leave it scorched for a brief moment. This seemed to do a heavy amount of damage, as it left the Demon Bones on its back and completely vulnerable.

"Wow… This is not what I was expecting from this fight…" Nazuchi trailed, jumping up to the Demon Bones and preparing to drive his sword into the bones. However, despite being on its back, the Demon Bones was easily able to swat Nazuchi away and make him crash into one of the gravestones, smashing it completely.

The Demon Bones managed to pull itself together and roll over on its stomach so it had an easier time getting up. Gripping its club, it swung at Zanex and knocked him onto the ash ground. Chalk charged at it next, but rather than using the club, the Demon Bones spun its body and let its tail knock him away.

"Well, that certainly was a close one…" the Demon Bones trailed, brushing off any dirt left on its body. "…You know what? I know how to make this fight more interesting!"

Its eyes flashed for a brief moment, and soon some Dry Bones began to rise from the graves. One had appeared right by Nazuchi, and while he slowly got up, he was alarmed by the enemy. It managed to hit his head with a bone, but once he spun his sword filled with fire, he easily defeated it.

"Guys! We've got some serious trouble here!" Nazuchi cried.

Chalk was started to swat a few Dry Bones away from him, while Zanex used his scabbard to smack them and make them collapse. However, it didn't take long for them to rise up from the ground and tackle the hedgehog. The Demon Bones couldn't help but feel satisfied.

However, it soon noticed a flaming Sword Beam coming in its direction. Unable to block it, the Demon Bones went into its shell to duck under the attack. It hit the gate instead, leaving it cracked.

_"Oh, geez… That was not a good idea…"_ the Demon Bones thought as it stood up and looked at the gate. _"If that's destroyed, I might not find an easy way back to her!"_

Unfortunately, it didn't see Zanex jump up and kick the side of its face. While it didn't knock the Demon Bones over, it left it staggering for a couple of seconds before swinging back at the hedgehog. Drawing Yami, Zanex easily sliced through the Demon Bones's club, making the upper half fall and crush a couple of Dry Bones.

"Looks like your weapon is useless," Zanex stated, swinging at the Demon Bones. While he was able to do a decent amount of damage, he was surprised when the Demon Bones was still standing. "Hmmmmm… Looks like you can hold your own against a blade like this compared to the enemies we've faced…"

Growling, the Demon Bones summoned a couple of Dry Bones to line up and charge at Zanex. This plan, however, proved to be pointless when Zanex sheathed his blade and curled up in a ball to perform a Spin Dash. He launched himself at the Dry Bones and caused many of their pieces to get sent flying in the air. Zanex also managed to jump and hit the Demon Bones's snout.

Chalk, meanwhile, struggled to fight off the Dry Bones grabbing a hold of him. Some of them grabbed his stubby hands to prevent him from using his weapon. The only thing Chalk could use was his feet, which the Dry Bones failed to notice.

"Take this, and some of this!" Chalk cried, kicking some Dry Bones in the stomach, which did very little to stop them. It wasn't until they felt themselves being blown back by a gust of wind. It didn't appear to affect Chalk, surprisingly.

Looking up, he saw Nazuchi with the palm of his hand facing Chalk.

"All right, well that's taken care of," Nazuchi said. "Now let's go back to that giant one, shall we?"

"Yeah!" Chalk smirked, aiming his paintbrush at the Demon Bones and firing red paint at it, causing the larger Dry Bones to burst into flames for a brief moment. Nazuchi added more to the mix by shooting a fire arrow at its chest. Angered by this, the Demon Bones got in its shell and began to spin itself before throwing itself toward Nazuchi. He quickly dove out of the way as the Demon Bones smashed through a couple of grave stones.

Once the Demon Bones stood up, Zanex dashed toward it and, with one swift motion, created a couple of orbs around the enemy filled with many katana swings. The Demon Bones found itself lifted off the ground each time it got struck. Zanex went in for his next move and jumped in the air in his ball form to hit the large Dry Bones with a Homing Attack.

Landing on top of one of the remaining gravestones, Zanex summoned a couple of Materialized Swords to surround him once the Demon Bones regain control over itself. Creating another bone club, it swung it down at Zanex, hoping to crush the furry pest for good. One thing it did do, however, was crush the gravestone.

The Demon Bones smirked, believing it had crushed its target. Lifting its bone club up, however, the only thing it found were pieces of the gravestone remaining. Turning around, it spotted Zanex standing without fear.

"I don't understand… How are you moving so fast?" the Demon Bones gawked, unaware of two other heroes behind it. It soon found itself being scorched again, and feeling its back, it found signs of a burning arrow and red paint. It turned around to face Nazuchi and Chalk, not aware that it managed to knock Zanex over with its tail.

"Argh… I should've seen that coming…" Zanex grunted, slowly getting up. "But it's nothing but a scratch."

Grinning, the Demon Bones decided to put its wings to use and lift itself off the ground. The three heroes were unsure of what it was planning, but once it dropped onto the floor, a large shockwave emitted from its feet. This left them all off guard and allowed the Demon Bones to spin its bone club and knock them to the floor again.

Chalk was the first one to get up, and acting quickly, he fired a paint beam straight at the Demon Bones. Surprisingly, it managed to send it crashing into the wall, leaving a hole in the shape of the Demon Bones. It didn't take long for the enemy to get out of the hole, and it was angrier than ever.

"You've humiliated me for the final time!" the Demon Bones exclaimed. "You will ALL perish!"

"Not if we get to you first," Nazuchi scoffed, taking out a bomb. As the Demon Bones charged, he rolled the bomb under the mini-boss, causing it to explode once it stepped on it. Many of its pieces began to fly everywhere and onto the floor. "Well, looks like that's over with…"

Before they could walk away, they heard the sound of a cyclone. The three turned and saw a dark cyclone forming around the remains of the Demon Bones. All of its pieces began to get sucked in and joined back together, leaving them surprised.

"Nice try, but you'll have to do better than that," the Demon Bones mocked.

"You don't look too good yourself though," Zanex said, noticing the Demon Bones was covered in soot in some places on its body. "I think we can finish this rather quickly."

"We'll see about that!" the mini-boss charged at the three, attempting to ram them with its head. Nazuchi made the first move and allowed his sword to be encased in flames before running up to the Demon Bones and swinging his sword upward, stopping the Demon Bones's attack and making it stand up and hold its head in pain. Chalk ran up to its chest next and painted a red X that eventually transformed into fire and scorched the Demon Bones again.

"X marks the spot!" Chalk smiled, stepping out of the way so Zanex could finish the job.

Dashing toward the Demon Bones, Zanex jumped in the air and drew his katana at blinding speeds that the Demon Bones didn't see the attack coming. After finishing his single slash attack, Zanex landed on the ground, leaving the Demon Bones's eyes to widen in shock.

"I don't understand… Beaten…by these fools?!" the Demon Bones gaped as Zanex fully sheathed Yami, causing the Demon Bones to explode and slowly disintegrate into black smoke.

"Oh, yeah! We showed that thing!" Chalk cheered. "It was no match for _my_ skills!"

"You know, I was the one who finished it off, puffball," Zanex noted. "You hardly did much during that fight."

"Before we get into that, what should we do with this gate?" Nazuchi asked, pointing to the gate. "There might be more enemies like that through that gate…"

"My suggestion? I say we destroy it." the brown hedgehog answered, approaching the gate. "I'd like to see these demons have a much harder time when they can't use their own gates."

He drew his katana and prepared to slice up the gate, but Nazuchi and Chalk stood in his way. "Get out of the way, you two. I can handle this."

"Well, maybe we'd like to have a little fun, too," Chalk said.

"…Fine. We'll all tear this thing apart."

Nazuchi approached the gate first and looked at his gauntlets. An idea sparked in his mind as he decided to give the gate a good punch. Considering that it was made of stone, the gauntlets appeared to smash through the gate. Smiling, he drew his sword and jumped in the air and strike it a few times, making a few pieces fall to the ground.

Chalk decided to go up next and used the end of his paintbrush to jab at it. Sadly, it didn't appear to do much, so he tried a couple of more times, with each jab doing very little but make a small mark.

"Hey! No fair! This paintbrush should be smashing this thing!" Chalk complained.

Zanex kicked Chalk out of the way so he could finish the job. Jumping in the air, he sliced the gate into many pieces until they hit the ground and turned into dust. With that, the gate was entirely destroyed.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, let's check the map," Nazuchi smiled, pulling out the map. While he studied it, four figures approached the graveyard, hearing the sounds of the gate being demolished.

"Yeesh… I can't believe a part of this forest is all gone." the Koopa remarked, stunned by the destruction in the forest. "Who would do something like that?"

"Honestly, what matters more is gettin' that Crystal Stars," Toadburt said, trying to sound cool. "Now… Where could that thing be?"

Scanning the graveyard, they happened to spot the three heroes, with Nazuchi still studying the map.

"My word! Those two are here as well!" Goombi gasped, surprised by their arrival. However, she noticed Zanex tapping his foot impatiently while looking down at the Magical Map. "…Wait, who is that one with the tarnished cloak?"

"It looks like another person joined those two. Very interesting…" Bonnie trailed. "I guess the star is somewhere around here."

"Which means we can search this area while they're distracted with that map!" Toadburt smirked, scanning the graveyard for the Gold Star. To their disappointment, most of the gravestones were destroyed, but close to their right, they spotted a goldish orange Crystal Star, which was stuck on the remaining gravestone. "I think that's it! Let's grab it!"

Toadburt made the first move and quickly ran to the gravestone to pry the star off. While that was going on, Nazuchi had finished studying the map.

"I think it's somewhere…" Nazuchi was about to point to where the map was targeting, but his mouth dropped when he saw Toadburt holding the Gold Star above him. "Wait… How did those four get here?!"

Nazuchi and Chalk quickly ran over to the heroes, while Zanex was a little confused at first, but he eventually followed them up to the four heroes.

"Finders keepers, loser!" Toadburt taunted, sticking his tongue out at Nazuchi.

"Oh, yeah, real mature…" Nazuchi groaned. "How did you guys get here?"

"We heard the sound of a battle coming from here, and then we heard something getting destroyed afterward," Bonnie explained. "It was safe to say that we'd probably find something here. Of course, Toadburt here just wouldn't shut up about coming here…"

"And it worked just fine!" Toadburt smirked, putting the Gold Star away. "So, if you'll excuse me… We'll be going, since I see no reason to be around you, blonde freak. See ya, sucker!"

He quickly made his exit, but the other three couldn't help but look at the approaching brown hedgehog. Something seemed strange about him, as if they had never seen something like him before.

"Pardon me, but you look like a strange fellow," Goombi said, her eyes looking at Zanex.

"If I'm bothering you, then you might as well leave," Zanex stated.

"A rude one, aren't you? Very well then…" Goombi began to make her exit as well, while Koopo and Bonnie stayed behind.

"About that Emerald Star…" Bonnie trailed, turning to Chalk. "I will admit, that was a clever move you pulled off, but just to let you know, we won't be as easily fooled next time."

"Then I'll think of something else!" Chalk smiled.

Unsure of what else to say, Bonnie made her exit, and soon Koopo followed her, having no reason to be standing around here either. Nazuchi let out a sigh before putting the map away, while Zanex glared at him.

"You should've done something if they got that star," Zanex pointed out. "If you needed it so badly, you should've took it from them!"

"Well, here's the problem, Zanex… They're not exactly bad guys…" Nazuchi trailed, looking up at the hedgehog. "And I really don't want to have to fight them. We tried to fight for one of the stars one time, and we only got our butts kicked. …However, we'll make sure we get it next time!"

"Yeah, let's hope so! They have two and we only have one!" Chalk exclaimed with his tongue sticking out. "Now can we leave this area?"

"…Yeah, I suppose we can leave this graveyard. I see no point in staying here. Let's just get to our main goal for now."

Leaving the graveyard, they saw the four heroes making their way out of the forest now that the Crystal Star was in their hands. Nazuchi sighed in disappointment, but not all hope was lost. There was still some ways to go, and that would eventually lead them to their destination.

They walked back onto the main trail and decided to follow it, now that the ground was more flat in this specific area. A couple of dried up Mushrooms called Dried Shrooms were remaining on the ground too from the fire. Nazuchi picked one up and decided to eat it, only to spit it out in disgust.

"Yeesh! These things taste gross when they're all dry!" Nazuchi gagged.

The other Dried Shrooms, however, were surrounded in some thick, black smoke. Once the smoke cleared, a couple of Shroudes were revealed. One managed to swipe its finger blade at Zanex and knock him onto the ashy floor. Chalk quickly reacted and paralyzed the Shroude so Nazuchi could finish it with a light arrow.

However, the fight was far from over. The two remaining Shroudes charged at the two, forcing them to put their weapons up and block their attacks. Zanex pulled himself together and fired two Materialized Swords at the two Shroudes to quickly stun them and allow him to finish them off with one katana slash.

"Geez… I guess these guys were disguised as some of those Dried Shrooms…" Nazuchi trailed, staring down at the one he tasted. "I sure hope I didn't taste one of those enemies…"

Testing whether the Dried Shroom was real or not, Zanex let his black shoe answer the question for him and stepped on it. "Doesn't look like it. It was probably real."

"Good… Well, let's continue onward." the blonde boy pressed on, with Chalk following him. Zanex lifted his foot and wiped off any remains of the Dried Shroom on the bottom of his shoe before following. He was quick to catch up, and the further they traveled, the more purple the sky was starting to become.

As they continued their travels, they noticed even the ash was starting to change as well. Rather than the grayish color, it had now become slightly purple. Looking further at the sky ahead, they noticed a large, purple light. Perhaps this was an indication of them getting closer…

"Wow, look at the light in the sky!" Chalk exclaimed happily. "I wanna reach it!"

"I don't know if that's possible, but that would be cool," Nazuchi smiled, taking out the blueprints. "Now, I know Yakken said something about there being traps at the tower – if that's their headquarters, of course."

Zanex looked over at the blueprints and was surprisingly curious. "What are those blueprints, and who is this Yakken you mentioned?"

"These are blueprints to the traps supposedly in the next boss's headquarters, which I'm guessing is the Wizard's Tower. Yakken is a guy in a cloak and hood who is basically the Shadow King's right-hand man, but he doesn't like him and is apparently helping us and Lilia…"

"Is that so? Well if he's no enemy, then I shouldn't have to worry." Zanex smirked. "Also, this walking is getting too boring for me. I'd prefer to speed this up a bit."

"But we're not as fast as you!" Chalk whined. "How do you expect for us to keep up with you!?"

"I didn't say I was going at full speed. I just want to move faster, because walking doesn't seem to be working well. You guys have your way of moving a bit faster, so I suggest you do that."

Realizing he was right, the two nodded in agreement and decided to pick up the pace. Nazuchi's Platinum Boots helped increase his speed a bit, while Chalk resorted to creating the ice road to slide across. Zanex curled up in a ball and used his Spin Dash to move on ahead, leaving a mark behind for the others to follow.

Surprisingly, they had not run into any enemies on their way, and they were starting to see a couple of small trees on the way too. The only difference, however, was that they lacked leaves. They had deduced that this area was most likely empty before the forest fire.

After five minutes of traveling, they noticed something off in the distance covered in a dark area. It was very tall, with the top almost resembling two curvy horns. There was also two, glowing red eyes on the top as well.

"I think I see the tower!" Nazuchi cried. "We're getting closer!"

However, as they got closer, they noticed a couple of dark Paratroopas with white eyes and bat-like wings flying their way and attempting to block their path. Some got in their shells and tried to throw themselves at the three. One crashed near Chalk's icy road, shattering it and making him fall.

"Hey! No fair!" Chalk cried, getting himself up and glaring at the Shadoo Paratroopas. "I guess these guys want to fight!"

Stopping, the heroes decided to attack them at longer range and began firing light arrows, red paint and Materialized Swords at them. The Shadoo Paratroopas hardly stood a chance in the end. With them out of the way, they continued onward and saw the tower getting larger and clearer by the moment.

Five more minutes passed, and the three heroes now stood between another dark barrier and the tower just a couple of feet ahead. Walking past the border turned the sky red again, and the purple light was replaced with a black, smoky one. The tower was mostly black with purple zigzags going across. Up ahead was the Wizard's Tower's entrance. It had a depiction of a wizard's hat on it.

"Wow… I can't believe we made it to our destination." Nazuchi smiled, looking up at the tower. "That…was a lot easier than I thought!"

As they got closer to the entrance, however, a purple force field soon surrounded them and blocked the way to the entrance, and two Shroudes, along with one Shroude with a wizard's hat, a staff and purple eyes. Its red arm was purple instead, and the cloak it wore was dark purple. It floated in between the two Shroudes and was known as a Wizard Shroude.

"This is Omega Shroude's territory," the Wizard Shroude stated. "Leave this place at once, or face the consequences."

"I think I have a much better idea," Zanex said, quickly drawing Yami and taking out the two Shroudes. The Shroude Wizard, on the other hand, created a magic barrier that not even Yami could slice through. Smirking under its robe, the Shroude Wizard cast a fire spell that nearly hit Zanex's foot.

"Your little tool isn't going to break this shield," the Wizard Shroude mocked. "Try something better!"

A smile formed on Chalk's face as he approached the shield and used his clear paint to instantly get rid of the shield, despite the Wizard Shroude not noticing. Using this as an opportunity to attack, Chalk painted the enemy white and left it frozen solid. With a single smack from the end of his paintbrush, the enemy was shattered and destroyed.

"Hmph… Not bad for a small little puffball." Zanex commented, putting his katana back in his sheath. "For a moment there, I thought we'd have a problem."

"Well, of course it was me who managed to help," Chalk smirked, holding his paintbrush to the side as he tried to sound cool. "Now, let us go onward, Nazoop!"

"Uhhhh… Yeah! Let's just get a move on!" Nazuchi agreed, approaching the tower's entrance. With no enemies remaining around them, the only choice for them was to open the door. At first when it opened, they saw a purple swirling vortex. It seemed harmless at first, but it then started to suck them in. "Are doors supposed to do this?!"

"Doesn't look like it!"

"Then try to remain caaAAAAAAAAAALM!" the blonde boy cried, getting sucked into the entrance. Chalk was soon getting sucked in, followed by Zanex, who remained calm and let the door take him in.

Once all three were in, the door closed on its own.

* * *

**Originally I had planned for just one specific area of the forest to be pretty much "dead" from the start, but I thought having the forest fire would make things a little more interesting...**

**Unlike the previous two dungeon-like areas, this one might have a little more creativity to them instead of being, well, what you would usually expect from a tower...**


	20. Trials of the Wizard's Tower

Chapter 20: Trials of the Wizard's Tower

"Unnnghhhh… Boy, that sure was something… Where are we?"

Slowly opening his eyes, Nazuchi managed to stand up and look at his surroundings. He was standing in a round, old room with the floor being made of wood, along with a couple of crates lying around with white, dirty blankets covering them. Cobwebs were in the corners of the room as well. The room also appeared to be dark purple, while the floor was lavender.

"Geez… Someone should really learn to clean this place. Look at how dusty and dirty it is!" Nazuchi exclaimed, obviously grimacing at the sight. Turning around, he saw both Chalk and Zanex lying on the floor. Before he could approach them, they got up on their own. Zanex brushed off any dust and dirt on his cloak, while Chalk shook said stuff off him.

Looking at his surroundings, Zanex was far from surprised. "So, this must be the tower's interior. Doesn't look like anything special."

"I know… It's just a dusty old room." Nazuchi approached the crates and poked at them, only for his hand to phase through one. "…Huh? That's weird. Hold on a second… I think I might understand this place."

"Ooh! Let me try that!" Chalk ran up to the crate and kept poking at it. Of course, his stubby hand only went through it as well. "It's like this whole place is an entire illusion…"

This time, the room slowly began to ripple and transform. Instead of a wood floor was a shiny, lavender floor, and many pillars were around the room too. There was a spiral staircase just up ahead leading to the next floor, and around them were strange, purple orbs of magical energy. Since they looked funny, Chalk began to smack one around.

"Chalk! Don't! It'll…" Nazuchi paused when he noticed the magic orbs were doing no harm to Chalk. In fact, it seemed to be healing any wounds left on the child. His worried look soon changed to surprise. "Well, look at that! Who ever thought magical orbs would help?"

Zanex let one of the orbs fall into his hands so he could crush it, wiping off any wounds left on him. Nazuchi grabbed another and let it heal off his wounds he was left from after the fight against the Demon Bones. With that, they headed over to the spiral staircase just up ahead. That is, until they bumped into an invisible wall.

Nazuchi stopped for a moment and began to feel the invisible wall. Touching it caused a small, purple transparent barrier to appear around his gauntlets. Moving his hand off the barrier, it faded away. Zanex tried swinging his katana at the barrier, but it appeared to do nothing.

"Great. We're being blocked." Zanex stated bluntly. "It doesn't look like we can break through this."

A light bulb appeared over Chalk's head as he approached the barrier and began to use his clear paint. However, even then it didn't appear to do anything. His happy face then changed to a look of annoyance. "Come on! This isn't working? How are we supposed to get through here?"

_"Ahhh… So visitors have arrived."_

Looking up, the three heroes saw a spirit of a wizard wearing a purple cloak that hid his face, along with a wizard's hat with a crooked point and yellow eyes. He didn't appear to have any limbs except for dark purple disembodied hands, and he appeared as a transparent spirit that slowly began to descend.

_"My name is Wizzmo. I was the one who created this tower many years ago. That means I know every single thing about this place. Impressive, isn't it?"_

"Why don't you tell us something important, such as that invisible barrier blocking out way," Zanex suggested harshly, crossing his arms as he glanced up at Wizzmo.

_"You wish to climb up this tower?" _Wizzmo asked, receiving nods from the heroes. _"What for? Only those worthy of the Wizard Clan are allowed to reach the top."_

"No, it's because there's something we're looking for at the top of the tower called a Land Tablet," Nazuchi explained. "Long story short, it's used to help save the world and restore this place to the light."

_"Hmmmm… I see… Well, if you're so eager to climb to the top of this tower, then you will have to be tested. You see, many of my wizard companions are here, and their job is to test you and see if you're worthy of passing to the next level. But to continue upward, you people must clear each trial assigned to you. Just so you know, these trials are no easy task. Only the greatest of wizards are capable of reaching the top!"_

"We're going to complete those trials, and then we're going to make you lick the walls!" Chalk proclaimed proudly, receiving confused looks from his two companions.

_"You… You realize that I'm dead, right?"_

"Just shut up and let us do this trial thingy!"

_"_…_OK,"_ Wizzmo replied with an expression of confusion on his face. _"Anyway, this trial will definitely prove if you're good enough to progress onward! You see all of those magic orbs? Well… One of them isn't exactly the same as the others. Grab it, and that barrier will shatter. How are any of them different? You just have to look closely! Then again, only a wizard can tell the difference!"_

The three looked at the magic orbs carefully, trying their best to see the difference between each and every one of them. There weren't a huge lot of them, which was nice, but most of them looked the same. However, an idea sparked in Nazuchi's mind. He aimed his sword at the magic orbs and tried to see if any of them had a different source of energy. Strangely enough, he discovered one magic orb in the corner that had a different type of source. Approaching it, he grabbed it and discovered it to be a Shadoo in disguise.

"What the…" Before Nazuchi could say more, the Shadoo extended its arms and grabbed his leg. It wasn't until the Shadoo got struck by a Materialized Sword that it released him and slowly disintegrated. Afterward, the barrier ended up shattering.

_"Wait… That magic orb was in the shape of a dark gooey monster?" _Wizzmo gawked. _"What are they doing here?"_

"It's obvious that they've also taken over the tower," Zanex replied. "I believe the one holding the Land Tablet captured this tower and made it his headquarters. Your wizards would obviously have known this."

_"Well… They…actually stay in one room all the time. Their rooms are shielded with energy that prevents dangerous monsters from coming in. However, it looks like you people were speaking the truth."_

"Then go tell your wizards that we need to progress through this tower to reach the boss."

_"I wish I could, but… This is the only room I'm limited to. I'm sorry, but the only way you can progress is if you clear the trials. Convincing them may not do much either, as they do not know the monsters lurking in this place, so that's your only option for now. Anyway, you must go and reach the top to stop these monsters. Until then, I must say farewell."_

Wizzmo's spirit soon disappeared, leaving the three heroes to approach the spiral staircase and reach the door that was stuck on the ceiling.

"Just remember, guys... We have the blueprints of getting past any traps left by those evil monsters." Nazuchi reminded, taking out the blueprints. "So this shouldn't be too hard for us!"

"Yeah, that is if there isn't anything unexpected," Zanex said, opening the door and jumping upward. Afterward, Nazuchi and Chalk leaped up into the next room with the hedgehog.

The next room they jumped into looked very similar, except there were no magic orbs floating around. The floor also appeared to show off a reflection of themselves when the three looked down.

Taking out the blueprints, Nazuchi checked to see what was in this room. "OK… So the blueprints say that…there are hidden bombs around this room. However, there appears to be a path that is completely void of them. Maybe it was made to let the baddies get around easily in this room?"

Following the blueprints, Nazuchi carefully made his way through the room. It started with him moving forward, then to the left, forward again, right, backwards, right again, forward and then left. He had created a mark on the floor with his sword to make things easier for the other two.

"I don't need your help for this," Zanex stated, taking out his silver emerald. "Chaos Control!"

With that, Zanex easily teleported across the room and appeared right by the door Nazuchi was waiting. Chalk smiled afterward and created an icy road for him to slide over and reach the other two, making Nazuchi gape.

"But… But… Oh, come on! How come I don't have any of that?!" he cried.

"Well, you've got those boots and gauntlet things," Chalk noted.

"Yeah, well when were they being so useful before?"

Unfortunately, their conversation was interrupted when two Shroude Wizards made their appearance in the room. They stared down at the three heroes with their angry eyes. Seeing them, Nazuchi, Chalk and Zanex quickly got their weapons ready.

"Well, what do we have here? A couple of intruders intruding into our little tower!" the first Shroude Wizard said, aiming its wand at the three. "However, I believe it all ends here for you, because you're bound t-"

Suddenly, the invisible bombs exploded, taking the two Shroude Wizards with them. Nazuchi and Chalk gasped at the smoke that had consumed the room, but after a moment, the smoke was cleared, and the Shroude Wizards were gone.

"What the…" Nazuchi gaped.

"Those Shroudes were idiots," Zanex remarked while sheathing his blade. "They should've realized they were floating over a field of bombs. Their talking only led them to their demise."

"They sure were idiots!" Chalk laughed.

With the enemies out of the way, they opened the door and were led outside of the tower. Except only this time, there was a glowing purple road that was slowly moving upward around the tower. Surprisingly, the sky around them was not red, but purple. However, before they could continue, two Shadoo Koopas came flying their way down the pathway.

"I've got this one!" Nazuchi declared, thrusting his hands forward and creating a gust of wind from his gauntlets to knock them back and force them to land on their backs instead, leaving them defenseless. Nazuchi jumped in the air and threw a kick on one of the Shadoo Koopas to easily defeat it, while the other decided to take advantage of the situation and throw itself at Nazuchi…

…Only to be left frozen solid by Chalk's white paint.

"You should try to paint, Zanther! It's fun!" Chalk smiled, smacking the frozen Koopa to shatter it.

"I'm guessing you're an idiot if you can't get people's names right," Zanex muttered, following the other two heroes up the purple path. They reached the next door and entered a room with sections of grass all over the room. Some Piranha Plants and Fuzzies were hiding in the grass, ready to attack anything that came close.

Once one Piranha Plant popped out of the grass, it was immediately struck by a fire arrow, killing it instantly. A Fuzzy had popped out and charged at the heroes, but a single smack from Zanex's scabbard defeated it. Another Piranha Plant appeared in front of Chalk, who painted its white spots red and burned it to ashes.

After wiping out the rest of the enemies in the room, the three scanned for any sign of a door in the room. Surprisingly, there were no stairs to help lead them to the next level of the tower. There didn't appear to be any sign of a door either, so Nazuchi took out the blueprints once again.

"Strange… It says here that there are a couple of switches in this room…" Nazuchi noted, looking up at the grass sections. "There are switches in each of the grassy areas. However, one of them is the real one. Apparently the real one is the one closest to us!"

Chalk walked over to the grass nearby and found a blue ! switch behind a few bushes. Giving it a good kick, a ray of purple magic struck the wall, revealing a door.

"Hey… That doors up on the wall!" Chalk guffawed. "How do they expect us to get up there?!"

"Chalk… Can't your paintbrush reveal hidden objects?" Nazuchi asked.

"If that's the case, then you better get to work," Zanex suggested.

Nodding, Chalk began to move his paintbrush, hoping to reveal anything hidden. Approaching the wall, he noticed a transparent object lines up with the door. Using his paintbrush, he ended up revealing a ladder. He was left with satisfaction as he climbed up and opened the door. Nazuchi and Zanex followed him afterward into another purple path circling around the outside of the tower – only this one was at a higher level.

Just as they were about to walk up the pathway, two Shadoo Runners came charging their way. One tried ramming into Nazuchi, but he brought his sword in front of him to block the attack. While the enemy was occupied with him, Zanex kicked the enemy off the path and watched it plummet to the floor. The last Shadoo Runner tried attacking Zanex, but Chalk's clear paint only wiped it out from existence.

Making their way up to the next door, they stumbled upon a different room compared to the previous ones. Magic orbs were floating around the room, but there happened to be a cliff leading to a pool of water below. They found themselves standing on a purple, glowing translucent platform, and there were a couple of paths. One included an electric floor leading to the wall, another had fire geysers and was more reddish, and the final path included a loop going up the wall and leading to the ceiling. Near the ceiling was a platform.

"I feel a lot of magic in this room…" Nazuchi trailed.

"That's because of my presence," Turning around, they noticed a Koopa wearing a purple wizard's hat and a robe with many yellow stars planted on it, along with a purple shell on his back. "The name is Woops. I guard this room of the tower. I assume you're trying to make your way to the top, correct?"

"Yup!" Chalk nodded. "And there are monsters we have to deal with in this tower!"

"Is that so? Well… If you wish to continue your way through the tower, you must complete my trial first! But I must warn you, this one requires the work of three, so you must work together to complete this trial!"

"…Fine. Just tell us the task." Zanex grumbled.

"You see these three different paths?" Woops asked, pointing to the said paths. "One is filled with electricity, one with fire, and the final one requires enough speed to climb up the walls! At the end of each path is a crystal ball. If you hit them all in under a minute and thirty seconds, I will let you pass. …However, you must all hit them at the same time, requiring you to work together!"

Nazuchi looked over at the electric path. "Wait… How do you expect us to get past electricity? I mean, we…"

He paused for a moment and looked down at the sparks coming from his boots. "On second thought… How about I take the electrical path?"

"I can take the fire one!" Chalk declared, holding his paintbrush up proudly. "Just leave that to me!"

"…Yeah, sure. You do that." Zanex stated coldly, looking at the remaining path with a smirk. "I'll take this one then."

"So you've finished choosing. Well… I shall get the timer ready!" Waving his wooden staff, Woops created a purple glow that emitted from it and created a timer starting at a minute and thirty seconds. "Remember: you all must hit the crystal ball at the same time to complete the trial!"

"Um, OK, but I wanna know-"

"Ready, set, go!"

Nazuchi groaned and began to run through the electric pathway. To his delight, his boots prevented him from receiving a nasty shock. As for Chalk, he constantly shot blue paint at the fire geysers to wipe out any flames in his way. Zanex probably had the easiest of the three with him being much faster. Getting his ball form, he charged up a Spin Dash and launched himself through the path and through the loop in his way. He got out of his ball form and began to run up the wall with ease.

"Hmmmm… Very impressive." Woops remarked, watching Zanex. "However, even when going fast, you still must wait for your allies to reach the crystal ball! You still have a minute and fifteen seconds left, though!"

Nazuchi continued to run through the electrical pathway until he noticed it go up onto the wall. Unsure of how to solve this, he decided to place his foot on it, and surprisingly, he didn't find himself falling off.

"Huh… So I guess as long as I stand on an electric area, whether it be on the wall or floor, I'm like a magnet!"

Moving up onto the wall, Nazuchi continued his way toward the crystal ball that was just up ahead. Zanex had already got on the ceiling and onto the platform where the crystal ball was, and Chalk had cleared the last fire geyser in his way.

"That was too easy!" Chalk remarked, getting ready to hit the crystal ball.

"Chalk! Not just yet!" Nazuchi cried. "We have to hit them at the same time!"

"Oh… Right!"

When Nazuchi reached his crystal ball, they decided to count to three to strike the crystal ball. After a quick count, the three struck the crystal balls, causing them to glow bright purple. A translucent purple platform appeared by a door across where Woops stood.

"Hmmmm… You did that all with thirty-five seconds left…" Woops trailed. "Maybe I might've given you too much time…"

"No no! We did the trial! You're supposed to let us through!" Nazuchi shouted.

Sighing, Woops used his magic to bring them back to him. "Strange… Only a wizard would be able to do something like this. You people are strange…"

"Well, I was born on a planet called Mondrao, so of course I'm a bit strange!"

"I'm just some wanderer of some sorts!" Chalk proclaimed proudly.

"Just let us across," demanded Zanex.

"Very well, if you insist," Using more of his magic, Woops created a purple bridge that led them to the door ahead. Nazuchi and Chalk thanked him and made their way across the bridge. The three headed through the door, only to find themselves in a room with a silver, metallic floor and walls.

Now they were all confused. Sure, there was a small pedestal with a red button, but this room was very small, and there appeared to be no door around. Before they could make any sudden movements, they heard the sound of something falling above. Looking up, they discovered a ceiling covered in spikes slowly descending upon them.

"It's a trap!" Chalk cried, running around the room while flailing his stubby arms. "We're all going to die!"

Getting sick of him running around, Zanex grabbed one of his arms and lift him off the ground. "Will you stop with that?! That's not going to help us!"

As soon as Chalk calmed down, Zanex released him, making him hit the floor. Meanwhile, Nazuchi approached the red button in the center of the room and then looked up at the ceiling. It was slowly getting closer to their heads, and they had very little options left.

Taking a deep breath, Nazuchi pressed the button, which emitted the sound of a cat meowing. The spiked ceiling slowly returned to its previous position.

"Hey… This button just brings the ceiling back up!" Nazuchi gawked. "So… What was the point of this anyway? Is this some sort of trick?"

"I liked the sound it made!" Chalk smiled, pushing Nazuchi out of the way and constantly tapped the button, making more cat sounds come out.

"Well, we can let him do that while we find a way out of here," Zanex suggested, watching the spiked ceiling go back up again. "This task shouldn't be too difficult."

While Chalk continued to press the red button, Nazuchi and Zanex started to search the room for the door. What could've been about a minute ended up lasting for thirty minutes. The two were getting sick of searching the small room, and even Chalk was getting tired of pressing the button.

"We're getting nowhere with this," Nazuchi sighed. "We've searched this room for thirty minutes, and there doesn't appear to be any way out of here! Was this made by those wizards or the bad guys?"

"Check the blueprints then," suggested Zanex.

Taking out the blueprints, Nazuchi checked to see if there was anything related to this trap. When he discovered it was, his face soon fell with annoyance. "…We're not supposed to press the button."

"What?" Chalk gawked, just a few inches away from pressing the button.

"A door's supposed to be revealed if we let the ceiling come down close to us…"

"So we've been searching for nothing?" Zanex asked in frustration. "Why didn't you check the blueprints in the first place?!"

"Oh, well… I guess I forgot?"

Zanex cast him a glare while the spiky ceiling slowly got closer to their heads. However, before the spikes could even touch them, they heard the sound of a pig squealing, causing the ceiling to go back up again – except this time, a door appeared just up ahead.

"Yeah! That was easy!" Chalk cheered, looking back at the button. "Just for old time's sake…"

Right before he could hit the button, Nazuchi grabbed him and dragged him through the open door. He constantly objected until the door was shut, allowing the blonde boy to release Chalk. They were, once again, on another circular pathway outside of the tower. Only this time, there was a large section of the road missing. Across the gap were some Shadoos and Shroudes taunting them.

Grabbing his katana's hilt, Zanex quickly unsheathed his katana to rip through the air and create many beams that were around the enemies. Upon exploding, the enemies were wiped out. Chalk proceeded to paint in the empty gap and create the road for them to travel up.

"I wonder what we'll run into through this door," Chalk wondered, entering through the door ahead. They were greeted with a surprisingly cozy room, including a luxurious, red rug, a fireplace and even some soft chairs. Sitting in one of the chairs was a Goomba wearing a red wizard's hat and holding a fairy's wand. "He's got a fairy's wand! That's hilarious!"

"Good evening, gentlemen," the Goomba greeted in a relaxed voice. "My name is Goombato. I'm the wizard of relaxation. Why don't you sit down and relax for a change?"

"You mean…you're not giving us any trials?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Trials? My good boy, trials take too much work to do. Just relax for a change and sit. You'll surely recover any wounds you might've taken."

"We have no desire for that, for we are not wounded," Zanex replied. "Just tell us how to get out of here."

"I could…but, I can't," Goombato stated.

"And…why not?"

"Because the way out of this room does not exist. Check around the room. You're bound to find something out of place."

With that, the three heroes found themselves scanning the room. Unfortunately, they didn't notice anything that felt out of place to them, so they were forced to move around. Goombato continued to sit and didn't bother to say a word. They searched the room for about ten minutes until they approached the lazy Goomba again.

"OK, listen here," Zanex started. "There's nothing that appears out of place here. Why don't you just tell us what the problem is now! We don't have time to sit here all day!"

"Well… You haven't checked _everywhere_…" Goombato smirked.

"Yes we did! We searched the entire place for-" Zanex paused for a moment and realized the one place they didn't look. His eyes looked up at the ceiling and discovered two chandeliers. There was one to the left and one in the center, which appeared much bigger. "Wait… I think I see it now! But we're going to need that paintbrush to get that."

"I'm on it!" Chalk declared, aiming his paintbrush at where a supposed chandelier was supposed to be near the large one and shot a burst of paint upward. Unfortunately, the ceiling was too high, making the paint fall onto the floor instead. "Sorry… It's too far to reach."

"Oh… That's not good." Nazuchi frowned. "If we can't reach that, then we're in a serious pickle."

"I'd like to eat a pickle!"

"Chalk, that's not what I meant."

"Don't think everything's over for you young ones," Goombato yawned. "You might be surprised that there is indeed something in here that'll help you. You just need to search the room."

"Great… More searching." Zanex groaned, searching the room once again. This time, the searching took less time than before. When Chalk opened one of the drawers, he discovered a strange-looking rainbow-colored paintball. Seeing the Spectral Paintbrush, it quickly went into Chalk's weapon, which began to glow.

"Whoa…" To his surprise, his paintbrush split into two smaller ones. Chalk held them up and noticed some paint balls shoot out almost like a bullet of a gun. Realizing its potential, he began to fire rapid shots of paint around the room, splattering parts of the walls, floor and ceiling.

"Careful now, boy," Goombato warned, dodging a paintball. "You're gonna hurt someone with that!"

Chalk smiled and looked up at the ceiling. Aiming one of his small brushes at the ceiling, he fired a couple of paintballs at where a chandelier would have been, creating one in the process. The fire in the fireplace went out and revealed a door. After that reveal, Chalk brought his two paintbrushes together to morph them back to normal.

The heroes didn't bother to say goodbye to Goombato, as he had already fallen asleep, so they proceeded through the door and proceeded through the next road outside of the tower. Surprisingly, they had not run into any enemies this time.

When they proceeded into the next room, the heroes were surprised to discover a large, grassy landscape with a couple of hilltops in the distance, along with a clear, blue sky. Even Zanex was left with shock.

"What kind of room _is_ this?" Zanex gaped, feeling some wind blow against him. "It's like we're…outdoors."

"That's because it's a spell to make it look that way," the three turned around and saw a Toad with purple polka-dots on his cap, a brown wizard's hat and robe, and black gloves and feet. He also appeared to be rather old as well. "My name is Whist T. I am the one who will assign you the next trial. But be warned, for this quest is not such a simple task."

"OK, so what is it?" Nazuchi asked.

"In order to complete this difficult quest, you must travel south over the hilltops until you see a purple flag waving in the wind. You will find a monster of such evil and such proportions that it will make you cry for your mommy. Defeat this monster and rescue the villager. Complete this quest, and only then shall you complete this trial."

"Sure thing!" Chalk nodded. "We'll do it!"

"Good. Now off you go!"

Nazuchi, Chalk and Zanex proceeded to the south and over a few hilltops. Thankfully, with Zanex, the travel went on much faster than usual, making it only take about seven minutes to find a purple flag.

"There it is! The purple flag!" Nazuchi cried, pointing at the flag in the distance. "I wonder why these wizards are so obsessed with purple…"

"Must be a thing," Zanex replied, trying to see what was off in the distance. There was a normal Piranha Plant beside a stake with two male and one female Toad were tied up. "…Wait, THAT is the monster he was mentioning?! How pathetic!"

Splitting his paintbrush into two, Chalk aimed one of them and shot a red paintball at the Piranha Plant. Though it didn't finish it off, he fired a couple more to do away with it. "Oh… I guess these shots aren't as strong… But they sure are fast!"

When they approached the hill where the Toads were tied up, they felt a violent tremor occur around them. Soon, the hill was surrounded by a large pool of lava.

"Wait… This wasn't mentioned in the quest!" Nazuchi gaped.

_"You honestly thought this would be an easy task? Think again! You see, this hill is sensitive to your weight! The only way for this lava to go away is to get rid of the weight that has been added! But how can you do this? It won't be so easy for you!"_

"Well crud… We fell into a trap."

"Hmmmmm… I think I might have an idea." Zanex pondered, looking down at the dead Piranha Plant. "We just need to remove the weight, right? We'd just need to get three people off this hill to deactivate the lava. First off…"

He plucked the Piranha Plant off the ground and tossed it into the lava. "That's one down. Now we just need to get rid of one more."

"But… Do we really… Do we have to let ourselves burn in this lava?" Nazuchi guffawed, looking at a bubble pop in the lava. "I didn't want to die like this…"

"Wait, but there are three villagers here," Chalk mentioned, pointing to the three Toads tied up. "But that wizard guy said we needed to rescue a villager. You know, one villager."

"Oh, yeah! I do remember tha-" the thirteen year old paused for a moment. "Wait… Are you suggesting that we _throw_ two of the villagers into the lava!?"

"There's no other option! If we're to complete our quest, that's the only thing we can do!"

"But… But… It's not right! We can't just let two innocent people lose their lives! Heroes don't do that kind of stuff!"

"Look, I'm going to side with him on this," Zanex proclaimed. "If we're to get off this hill, we need to get two more people off. We don't have much of a choice here, Nazuchi."

After thinking for a moment, Nazuchi let out a sigh. "…Fine. We do need to save the other lands in this world, and we can't do it if we're dead. We'll just save the Toad lady, OK?"

"Good," Zanex grabbed one of the male Toads and tossed him into the lava. Nazuchi, meanwhile, cut off the rope and freed the Toad lady.

"Boy! I can't wait to see the look on that wizard's face when we tell him the news!" Chalk proclaimed proudly, throwing the other Toad male into the lava.

* * *

**Back by Whist T.-**

Whist T. could only look at them in horror as they finished telling their quest.

"Are you guys for real?! Are you all that STUPID?!"

"Ummmmm… No?" Nazuchi sweat dropped.

"You weren't supposed to throw anyone in the lava!" Whist T. exclaimed. "You had to jump at the same time to deactivate the lava! It was a puzzle you morons!"

"Oh… Well… Sorry?" Chalk apologized.

"Didn't you think you would need those villagers to complete your quest?"

"Stop whining over it. We saved one villager, like you said." Zanex stated coldly. "Get over it."

"But… Those were my sons you threw in the lava…"

The three's faces were left in total shock, along with a bit of guilt.

"Oh… We…didn't know…" Nazuchi trailed nervously.

"You… You people just murdered my sons… Why…? Why?!"

"OK… I guess we'll be…going…now…" Nazuchi stammered, noticing the door nearby at a rock. The three quickly zipped over to the door, while Whist T. continued to stand there in horror over the loss of his two sons.

"I guess that's going to make these wizards dislike us once they hear the news…" Nazuchi trailed, closing the door behind him. "Well good going, guys. We just killed innocent people. We're murderers."

"Honestly, we hardly had a choice," Zanex replied. "We had no idea what to do, and that was our only choice we could think of. Plus, if that old Toad was wise, he wouldn't have left his two sons be tied up."

Nazuchi sighed as he walked up the circular path. "I guess you do have a point… Though I'm guilty of what we did, it's best to move on. I mean, sometimes going on a huge quest might cost a few lives of some innocent people."

"I liked that old man's expression when we told him the whole story!" Chalk smiled, shooting a paintball at an approaching Shadoo, knocking it off the road. A Shroude Wizard came in next, casting a fire spell that managed to strike the off guard Nazuchi. However, considering that its shield was not up, Zanex easily wipe it away with two swift katana slashes.

They entered the next room and found themselves in a cave-like room, with the rocks being dark purple. The only difference, however, was that there was a bottomless pit surrounding them, and a small, rocky pathway leading to a door ahead. Only problem? There was a large gap in between them and the door ahead.

Over by the door, two Shroude Wizards couldn't help but taunt them for being on the other side. This only annoyed Zanex when he fired a couple of Materialized Swords at them, only for them to bounce off their barriers.

"Nice try! You'll have to do better than that!" one Shroude Wizard scoffed. That is, until Chalk split his weapon and fired clear paintballs to wipe out the barrier, along with them.

"I'm guessing for this we need to create a bridge. Sounds pretty simple." Nazuchi smiled. "Go right ahead, Chalk!"

Nodding, the puffball walked over to the gap and began to paint a bridge with his paintbrush. Unfortunately, a bridge didn't appear to be created. "Oh… Looks like that won't work, Naz."

"Well that figures," Nazuchi sighed, kicking a pebble on the floor, causing it to fall into the pit. "How are we supposed to get past this area then with no way across?"

"It's simple," Zanex declared, pulling out the Chaos Emerald. "We'll just teleport across using Chaos Control."

Holding the emerald up, Zanex shouted the name of the move, but nothing appeared to happen. He shouted Chaos Control a couple more times, with no results. "I don't understand… It feels as though a strange force is blocking my move! Was a spell conjured up by one of the wizards?"

"Hey, guys! I just saw a pebble fall from the ceiling!" Chalk called out, grabbing the other two's attention. Walking over to where Chalk stood, they saw a pebble fall from the sky again. It fell again, but at a much faster rate.

"Weird… Wasn't that the pebble I just kicked earlier?" Nazuchi gawked. After the pebble fell again, he could easily recognize it. "Yeah! That is the pebble! But… Why is it continuously falling?"

"I'm guessing the magic in this place creates a loop that makes the rock continuously fall," deduced Zanex. "If that's the case, then we could easily jump and try to make our way to the other side."

"I see a big problem with that. We'd probably get seriously injured if we landed on the other side from falling so fast. My guess? We'd probably die."

"Do you have an idea?" Chalk asked.

"Well… Maybe I could create some wind to bring us to the other side? Or maybe Chalk's ice road could do the trick too?" Nazuchi suggested.

"…Oh, great idea!" Chalk created an icy road that he began to slide on to reach the other side. Unfortunately, it only shattered afterward. "Oh, I guess it might be a bit difficult for you two, but at least I reached the other side!"

"…Wait a second," Nazuchi pulled out the blueprints and noticed something related to this room. "OK, it mentions something about this room being some kind of loop, but nothing on how to get across. I guess that Shadow King didn't have any ideas for this one…"

"Just use that wind ability of yours to get us across," Zanex demanded, now becoming impatient.

Rolling his eyes, Nazuchi spread his arms out and began to spin, creating a cyclone. Zanex got caught in it and was carried across to the other side before the cyclone calmed down and allowed the two to land safely. After catching their breath, they hurried through the door and were met with a spiral staircase rather than what they usually ran into.

However, they decided not to complain and made their way up to the top and to the next door. The three were surprised to find a round room through the door with a reflective floor and a door straight ahead. Despite the room appearing to be easy, the heroes were cautious.

When they looked at the floor, they noticed through the ceiling that the ground had much more pits than they believed. In fact, there was only a narrow pathway they had to carefully make their way across. Not only that, but purple Shroudes with hoods covering their faces called Hidden Shroudes could be seen through the floor. Zanex was lucky enough to take out two that tried to assassinate him from behind.

"Is this the best they can come up with?" Zanex scoffed, who had now made his way to the other side. He waited for the other two to reach the other side before kicking the door open outside. Surprisingly, they saw a path just to their side, but there was also another path leading up to a Lakitu wearing a green wizard's cap, along with a monocle that was on his and the cloud's face.

"Hello there, you three. Wonderful weather, isn't it?" the Lakitu asked as the heroes approached him. "My name is Lakilician, the wizard of the highest ranks of this tower. Are you ready for your final trial?"

"Final trial? Hey, we're getting close to the top!" Chalk cheered.

"Ah, so you must be very excited! This last trial shall finally prove if you're worthy of going to the top of the Wizard's Tower! This may be a trial that might be easy for you, or difficult."

"Well, we're ready for it!" Nazuchi declared. "We can definitely do this…"

"As you wish," Lakilician smirked, flying out of the way so a swirl of magic could appear before them. A large, purple Boo with orange eyes was conjured up from the magic, and its tongue was hanging from its mouth. "This is the Boo Guardian. Only the master of magicians can create such awesome power like this Boo. If you manage to defeat it, then you will be granted access to the top of the tower."

"All right, if you say so," Zanex smirked, approaching the Boo Guardian while he placed his right hand on his katana's hilt. "This thing will be wiped out within seconds!"

He quickly rushed at blinding speeds toward the Boo Guardian and unsheathed Yami as quick as possible to strike it. Afterward, he quickly sheathed his weapon. "Is that the best you could come up with? It was wiped out within-"

Zanex soon found himself knocked onto the floor by a magic orb the Boo Guardian coughed out. "Wait… What?! That should've wiped that thing out!"

"Heh heh heh! The Boo Guardian is not as foolish as you think!" Lakilician snickered. "They will become transparent when they see their enemies making an attack, and that keeps them safe from harm!"

"Argh…" the brown hedgehog slowly stood up and glared at the cackling Boo Guardian. "Take this!"

Summoning some Materialized Swords, he fired them directly at the Boo Guardian. Unfortunately, that didn't appear to do much, as the ghost covered its face and turned invisible, letting the swords go through its body and leave it unharmed. The Boo Guardian was about to make another attack, but it found itself getting struck by many projectiles. Turning around, it discovered Chalk firing white paintballs at it.

"Eat some of this!" Chalk cried, firing another paintball that only went through the Boo Guardian. Zanex saw the projectile coming his way and quickly sliced it with Yami to stop it.

_"Strange… From behind, that Boo Guardian couldn't avoid the attack…"_ Zanex thought. _"So, perhaps I should attack where it can't see me!"_

Since he was behind the Boo Guardian, he quickly swung his katana to damage it and bring its attention to him. Zanex quickly teleported using Chaos Control to get back to Nazuchi and Chalk and created a couple of slicing orbs from a quick unsheathe from his katana to damage it further.

"Listen you two, the only way we'll hurt this thing is if we don't attack it directly," Zanex informed. "So attack it when it's not turning its attention to you, OK?"

"Ah! I think I got it!" Nazuchi nodded. He turned to the Boo Guardian and watched it spit another magic orb at them. He rolled to the side and got around to its back and quickly swung his sword upward. This seemed to do even more damage than Zanex's katana. "Looks like they're weak to light…"

As soon as the Boo Guardian turned to him, Chalk made his move next and morphed his two brushes to normal. He twirled his paintbrush and began to paint the large Boo white, causing it to freeze before attacking Nazuchi. Chalk gave the Boo Guardian one final tap with his paintbrush to shatter it.

"That was way too easy," Chalk remarked.

"I was expecting this to be a lot harder…" Zanex trailed.

"Congratulations, you three," Lakilician applauded, slowly descending to the heroes. His expression appeared to show a bit of surprise and disappointment. "You've managed to defeat the Boo Guardian and completed the final trial. I guess that means you're allowed to go to the top now."

Conjuring up some more magic, he fired it at the door at the top of the purple road, unlocking it. "I've unlocked the door. You may go now."

"All right, thanks," Nazuchi thanked, making his way over to the circular path. Chalk and Zanex followed afterward, leaving Lakilician to sigh.

_"Note to self: remind me to make the Boo Guardian less predictable." _

Entering the door, the heroes had discovered a large room with four pillars holding the ceiling up, along with a large hot spring that was in the center of the room. This room didn't appear to be purplish compared to the others with only a few torches on the walls lighting up the room. There was also a beautiful beam of light just past the hot spring leading to a doorway on the ceiling.

"So… That beam of light must lead to the top of the tower." Nazuchi deduced. "The Forest Tablet must be up there!"

"But look at this hot spring!" Chalk gaped, gazing at the steamy water. "Nazub! We've gotta stay in this hot spring and heal ourselves before going up!"

"Yeah, that makes some sense. We might as well…"

The three stepped into the hot spring, which was hardly deep. In fact, it only went up to around Chalk's feet, Nazuchi's legs and barely reaching Zanex's socks. He made sure to avoid getting his cloak wet in the process. Aside from that, the water seemed to instantly recover and eradicate any wounds left on them.

"Strange… I never knew hot springs could heal you this quickly." Zanex remarked. "But I feel fine just now."

Once they finished, they stepped out of the hot spring and approached the beam of light ahead of them.

"All righty… Let's go." Nazuchi smiled, entering the beam of light, causing him to ascend upward into the doorway above. Chalk walked into the beam afterward, and soon Zanex.

_"Let's hope this Forest Tablet can help me get back home,"_ Zanex thought as he reached the doorway above him and felt his sight flash white.

* * *

**Well, this chapter was certainly fun to write!**

**There were actually a few references in this chapter to an animation called "Unforgotten Realms", which is very entertaining and makes fun of those role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. I believe those references were from episodes 24-26.**

**Now that our heroes have reached the top of the tower, what will they find? Find out on the boss chapter next time!**


	21. Omega Shroude: In the Shadows

Chapter 21: Omega Shroude: In the Shadows

Reaching the top of the tower, the three were not expecting to see a large, purple swirling vortex up in the sky. It didn't appear to look like anything dangerous, surprisingly. In fact, it felt more peaceful than dangerous. The floor they stood on was dark gray with eight pillars surrounding a pedestal in the center on the room. Unfortunately, there were no handrails to prevent them from falling off the tower.

"So… We're finally at the top." Nazuchi declared, walking away from the hole he had come out of from the floor. Chalk and Zanex came out of the hole afterward and stepped away from it, making it disappear.

"Uh oh… I guess there's no going back now." Chalk gulped, noticing the hole's disappearance. "So, how do we get out of here now?"

"That answer is pretty simple. You won't."

Looking up, the three heroes saw a dark figure slowly land in front of them. He had some resemblance to a Shroude, except he wore a curvy crown on his head and had purple legs, which Shroudes always seemed to lack.

"So, you must be the one who's behind this whole land being dark," Zanex deduced, crossing his arms.

"You would be partly correct," Omega Shroude answered. "The Shadow King was mostly responsible for spreading his dark powers across this world, but I'm here to make sure this place is kept in the darkness by holding the Land Tablet. I'm guessing you are the famous Dark Slayer I've been hearing about. I was hoping you and those other two heroes would end up killing each other in the end!"

"I see… I guess that makes perfect sense. Oh, and by the way, the correct name is Zanex, but Dark Slayer is not a bad name, considering that I've been destroying many dark beings standing in my way."

"Yes… I know already. My minions have always told me about you."

"Not to butt in to this conversation, but we came here for a reason," Nazuchi cut in, drawing his sword and pointing the tip in Omega Shroude's direction. "We've come for that Forest Tablet."

"Oh, this?" Omega Shroude opened his cloak, revealing the glowing Land Tablet. Before the heroes could move an inch, he closed his cloak, hiding the ancient artifact. "Sorry, but this thing's not for sale. Of course, I could give this to you for a certain price…"

"Really? How much?" Chalk asked, eager to know his answer.

"How about all three of your lives? How does that sound?"

"Awww… But I only have one!"

Omega Shroude ignored Chalk and stared at the other heroes in annoyance. "I have to say, I'm a bit surprised to see that you people managed to make it to the top of this tower. There were many traps set up just to stop you guys, but it looks like none of that appeared to work."

"Well, maybe because we had a little help along the way," Nazuchi smirked, holding up the blueprints to the tower. "Yup! We knew all about the traps set up!"

"Wait a second… Those are the blueprints to the tower!" Omega Shroude gaped. "But how did you get those?! They were located in the Shadow King's castle up in the sky! There's no way you people would've made it up there! Unless… Unless that princess had something to do with it!"

"Yeah! She sure did!" Chalk nodded. "But you won't be telling any king today, because we're going to take you down!"

"Hmmmm… You're right. You people are standing in my way. I could always tell my king about her taking those blueprints, but I think it would even be better if I told him the news of destroying you three!"

Omega Shroude removed his crown, causing two, horns curving upward to appear on the sides of his head. A weapon had materialized in his right hand as well. It appeared to be a double-bladed scythe with purple markings on it, along with a dark glow surrounding the sharp edges of the blade.

"You know, we Shroudes are kind of like reapers in a way… Our fingers are sharp like a scythe, and we tend to use those to extract a person's soul and take it for ourselves. This weapon, however, is ten times as deadly as a finger blade, and it will be the one to put an end to you three! Perhaps I'll hang your souls on the walls when I'm done with you."

"Don't get your hopes up," Zanex said, grabbing a hold of his katana's hilt. "You're just the same as those other enemies we've faced, only you have legs. Someone like yourself isn't going to scare me."

"I see… Well, we'll find out if you people are afraid of me when I show you what I'm capable of!" Omega Shroude grinned, lifting off the ground and charging straight at Zanex. "Now it's time for you all to meet your ends!"

He went for Zanex first and tried to strike him with his double-bladed scythe. To his dismay, however, Zanex was able to draw Yami out in time to block the attack. Omega Shroude was surprised at first, but he smirked when he released one of his hands from the weapon and let his fingers extend into blades.

Seeing this coming, Zanex used the power of the Chaos Emerald to teleport out of his sight, leaving Omega Shroude in surprise.

"Huh? Where'd he go?!"

"Right behind you."

Omega Shroude whirled around, only to get struck by Zanex's katana. The attack managed to knock him to the floor, but he was easily able to get back on his feet and strike Zanex with his double-bladed scythe, though this hardly stopped the hedgehog from attacking him.

Materialized Swords appeared beside Zanex and charged straight for Omega Shroude, who couldn't help but cackle.

"This is the best you've got? HA! Just watch and learn!" Omega Shroude spun his scythe and destroyed the Materialized Swords with ease. "Nice try, Dark Slayer, but you'll have to do better than that!"

"Oh, put a cork in it!" Chalk exclaimed, painting a red X on Omega Shroude's back to scorch him, forcing him to turn to the puffball. He aimed his double-bladed scythe in his direction and fired a dark glob of energy at him.

However, Nazuchi ran in and swung his sword at the darkness, sending it flying away before it exploded. Omega Shroude gaped for a moment before letting out a growl. It wasn't long until he found a Materialized Sword pierced through his body.

Omega Shroude turned around, but only to get smacked in the face by Zanex's scabbard. While he was dazed, Zanex smacked him a couple more times before drawing his blade and striking him with two swift katana swings. He kicked the Materialized Sword still stuck in Omega Shroude's body to drive it deeper into his body and cause more pain before striking him down with one last attack from Yami.

"Weakling. You're hardly a challenge." Zanex scoffed, sheathing his katana before looking down at Omega Shroude.

"Heh heh… That's where you're wrong." Omega Shroude chuckled, slowly getting up. He didn't appear to look exhausted or wounded after the beating. "You can do so much with your weapons, but as the leader of the Shroudes, I can stand up to plenty of attacks!"

His purple eyes flashed red as the Materialized Sword came out of his body and shattered when he spread his arms out. Now that Zanex was left off guard, Omega Shroude hurled his scythe toward him and made him crash into one of the pillars, leaving a crack on the lower section.

"…Oh, yeah. I certainly can't forget you two either!" Omega Shroude grinned, turning his attention to Nazuchi and Chalk. He caught his weapon in time and fired more globs of energy at them. Nazuchi took action by deflecting all the projectiles with his sword. One managed to get sent flying back at Omega Shroude, but he held out the palm of his hand to stop the attack. "That sword… I recognize it from somewhere…"

"And this sword is what's going to put an end to you!" declared Nazuchi, jumping in the air and striking Omega Shroude with the weapon. A bright light emitted from the Shroude leader as he cringed in pain. This gave Chalk the opportunity to shoot some green paint to poison him.

In retaliation to this, Omega Shroude swung his double-bladed scythe at Chalk to send him flying back at Nazuchi, causing both of them to fall back on the floor. What made things worse was that they were near the tower's edge.

"This isn't good…" Nazuchi gulped.

Omega Shroude's feet lifted off the ground as he flew over the two heroes. Grinning, he charged down at the two, ready to strike.

However, Nazuchi was able to get himself up and managed to push himself upward so his feet were making contact with Omega Shroude's face. The Shroude leader soon found himself crashing into the cracked pillar, knocking it down, along with another one behind it.

"That showed him!" Chalk fist pumped.

"I don't think he's done yet, Chalk," Nazuchi noted, getting his bow ready. "Maybe we'll have a better advantage at a further range!"

Omega Shroude got back up and floated back in the air, only this time he was a bit more frustrated than usual. An idea struck his head, realizing what he could do. He tightened his grip on his scythe and managed to slice through the air so hard that it created a small rift in space. A large amount of air was getting sucked into the rift.

"Wow! That's cool!" Chalk exclaimed.

Zanex was about to attack him, but Omega Shroude grinned and entered the rift, which soon closed afterward. With him out of their sights, they were forced to stay cautious.

"Stay close, guys…" Nazuchi suggested, facing away from Chalk. "We should stay close, but face a different direction."

The three heroes stayed together, but faced different directions. Nazuchi readied his bow, Chalk held his Spectral Paintbrush close to him, and Zanex had his hand on Yami's hilt, ready to strike Omega Shroude when he would approach.

But to their dismay, they had found no sign of Omega Shroude. They had stood in the same position for three minutes, but nothing happened. All they could hear was the sound of the swirling vortex in the sky.

"Where is that coward?" Zanex asked. "He should be showing himself by now."

Before anyone could respond, they noticed a small orb of dark energy drop in front of them - three to be exact, actually. They exploded and sent the three flying in the air, and then they found themselves landing harshly on the floor.

A rift appeared above them, and out came Omega Shroude with a nasty grin on his face. He lunged down and prepared to attack Zanex, but Nazuchi got his bow ready and fired a light arrow that struck the Shroude leader and left him wincing in pain. This gave Zanex the opportunity to smack his face with his scabbard.

"Grrghhh… You people are starting to get on my nerves!" Omega Shroude hissed, obviously showing off his frustration. "I hate you all!"

"Or maybe you just can't accept defeat," Nazuchi stated, throwing a punch at Omega Shroude that created a small cyclone. It was enough to send him flying off the tower, but that barely did much when he was capable of levitating.

"Fine. You want me to get serious? Then I shall arrange that just for you three!" Omega Shroude's double-bladed scythe split into two, smaller scythes in the same fashion as Chalk's ability. "Take this!"

He aimed directly at Nazuchi and began to fire dark projectiles at a fast pace. The blonde boy chose not to block the attacks and was now running for his life. Eventually this had stopped when Zanex jumped in the air and struck Omega Shroude with a Homing Attack.

Omega Shroude growled and swung his two scythes at Zanex, but he easily blocked them with his scabbard and smacked his face once again before landing on the ground. When he saw dark projectiles coming his way, Zanex drew his katana and spun it around to block the attacks.

"Arrgh! I don't understand! How are my attacks being easily blocked?!" Omega Shroude gaped.

Frustrated by this battle, Omega Shroude retreated through another one of his rifts. Zanex was about to jump into it, but it ended up closing before he could even get close to it. He landed on the ground, annoyed that he had missed his opportunity, but he didn't see a rift appear behind him, along with a figure that managed to knock him over.

Just as Omega Shroude was about to cackle, he found himself paralyzed by Chalk's yellow paint. He tried turning to him, but doing so was very difficult. This gave Nazuchi an opportunity to strike, so he ran up to him and swung the Sword of Light at him.

"You people… You're really pushing me this far…" Omega Shroude hissed. "Very well! I might as well use my full power to crush you all!"

"I thought you were being serious?" Chalk recalled.

"Oh, shut up, you annoying puffball!"

"Well, looks like someone's pretty angry," Nazuchi laughed. "To be honest, you're hardly a threat! Sandstorm was a much stronger guy than you were! Just hand us the Forest Tablet and we'll let you go, OK?"

"I'm not going to let myself lose this easily," Omega Shroude hissed, merging his two scythes together. "So, you want to see what a Land Tablet's power can do for someone like me? Well, today's your lucky day!"

Omega Shroude did away with his cloak, revealing his body to be black with a purple vortex depicted around his abdomen. He was also holding the Land Tablet near his chest. "Land Tablet! It is time for you to fulfill your duty!"

The Forest Tablet began to suddenly glow a dark aura. The three heroes watched as darkness enveloped Omega Shroude and surged into him. Once the darkness cleared away, they saw Omega Shroude had pauldrons pointing sideways on his shoulders, longer horns on his head and a depiction of two, purple eyes on his body.

"So… What do you think of this power?" Omega Shroude smirked.

"If that's the best you can do, then obviously that's barely going to help," Zanex stated.

"Well… We'll see about that!" To their surprise, the Shroude leader began to phase through the floor and into the shadows. They looked around to see where he was, but the only thing they found was a dark purplish, blobish creature rise from the ground. It didn't appear to have legs, but it was very large with muscular-looking arms. Its head had a strange, glowing spot.

"That thing's ugly," Chalk remarked, staring at the large, demonic creature.

"For once, I agree with you," Nazuchi replied, aiming his bow at the creature. "That glowing spot is obviously the weak point. I mean, it's the only thing standing out!"

A light arrow fired and struck the face of the creature. Though it didn't destroy it, it was enough to weaken it. Zanex took this opportunity to run toward it, only to get smacked into a pillar by the creature called a Shadroer.

The Shadroer raised its fists and slammed them on the floor, causing a massive shockwave to emit and come their way. They dodged it with ease, and then Nazuchi fired a light sword beam that destroyed the Shadroer with ease.

"That was hardly a challenge…" Nazuchi remarked.

Before he could say another word, he felt himself get knocked back by a figure that rose out of the shadows. Zanex turned his attention to the figure, who was revealed to be Omega Shroude. Unfortunately, he had no time to act, as his opponent retreated into the shadows and attacked him from behind with his double-bladed scythe.

Zanex growled and turned around to swing at him, but Omega Shroude was already gone by then. He appeared right in front of Chalk and extended his five finger blades in order to swing at him. To his dismay, Chalk had blocked it with his paintbrush, so he tried hitting him with his weapon instead, which turned out to be successful.

"Hey! No fair!" Chalk cried, getting up. "Well, I guess it's time to show you something cool!"

Chalk aimed at Omega Shroude once he saw him and fired his Paint Beam. He smiled in delight, but his smile faded when he saw Omega Shroude go back into the shadows to avoid the attack. His attention was brought back to Zanex when he saw him running toward him, so he appeared in front of him and tried striking him with his scythe, only for it to be parried.

"You know, I think I've discovered something about you," Zanex realized, trying to push Omega Shroude back. "And you using that Land Tablet has proven my point even more."

"What are you talking about?" Omega Shroude gawked. "Let me guess: I'm as strong as you thought?"

"No. Hardly. In fact, you going into the shadows to constantly surprise us proves that you're a coward."

"What?! A coward?! How dare you! That's it! You're going down first!"

Omega Shroude went back into the shadow and appeared right behind Zanex. Just as he was about to attack, the hedgehog drew his blade and struck the evil Omega Shroude, who fell back in pain from the blow.

"Just so you know, attacking someone from behind has started to become very predictable, especially for someone like yourself," Zanex scoffed. "Just give up now."

"Yeah… I think not." Omega Shroude raised his arms and summoned another Shadroer. It shot a purple laser from its bright face at Zanex, but before he could get blasted, Nazuchi managed to pull him out of the way in time. This disappointed Omega Shroude, but he remained calm and went into the shadows again.

"Geez! Is this guy afraid of us or something?" Nazuchi gawked.

"If that's the case…" Chalk took a deep breath before speaking out. "Hey, coward! Stop hiding, because you're not going to get anywhere with that! Do the other minions look down at you for that or something?!"

This ended up hitting Omega Shroude hard as he listened in the shadows. He rose in front of the heroes while steaming with anger.

"You… I'll destroy you!" Omega Shroude roared, throwing his scythe in their direction. "You three are going to experience a whole new world of pain!"

He commanded the Shadroer to crush them, which it obeyed. Nazuchi fired a couple of light arrows to do away with it, but that hardly stopped Omega Shroude when he came charging at them. He grabbed his scythe and began to spin his body around, resulting in him crashing into the three and sending them flying in the air.

"Chalk, I think you really pushed him…" Nazuchi noted as they all began to fall.

"Nighty night, you fools!" Omega Shroude cackled, standing under them and spinning his scythe like a saw blade. "I was hoping things would end in a 'cleaner' fashion, but looks like I had to resort to this instead!"

Zanex opened his eyes and looked down at the Shroude leader's grin. Judging by his look, he appeared to be very confident with this attack. Zanex smirked, deciding now was the chance to finish the fight. He quickly drew his emerald and held it up in the air.

"Chaos Control!"

"Chaos Control? What the heck is th-" Omega Shroude was cut off when he and everyone else except for Zanex were frozen in time. This gave the hedgehog a chance to land on the ground away from Omega Shroude and hit him with a Spin Dash that sent him flying back. Afterward, time reverted back to normal, and Nazuchi and Chalk landed on the ground.

"Whoa… What? Where'd Omega Shroude go?" Nazuchi gawked, noticing he was fine upon getting up.

"We live!" Chalk cheered. "Now let's go kick some butt!"

The two join Zanex with his battle with Omega Shroude. As of now, both of them were clashing weapons. Neither of them appeared to get any decent hits. An idea popped in Nazuchi's head, and he whipped out a bomb and threw it over the battle so it landed right behind Omega Shroude.

The bomb exploded, and it was able to cover Omega Shroude in soot. Despite irritated, he was barely able to avoid Zanex's katana swing. Going into the shadows, he emerged from a further range, split his double-bladed scythe in two, and began to fire.

Zanex easily ran up to him while blocking his attacks and jumped in the air to slice him, but Omega Shroude escaped the attack, resulting in Yami striking a couple of pillars in the way.

_"I can tell he's very weak,"_ Zanex thought. _"If I can get a good hit on him, it'll be over."_

Omega Shroude appeared above Zanex and fired down, but he was interrupted when he felt himself get struck by a couple of paintballs. He turned and saw Chalk's paintbrush split in two and firing projectile at him in the same fashion as his dual scythes.

"Who does this boy think he is, ripping off my act?" Omega Shroude aimed his two scythes down at Chalk and began to fire, but little did he see Nazuchi fire a light arrow in his direction. To his luck, he managed to barely avoid it and sighed in relief, only to feel himself get knocked to the ground. "Argh! What the…"

He quickly got up and was left dazed when Zanex smacked him with his scabbard. This gave him enough time to summon some Materialized Swords that began to circle around the hedgehog.

"This should help," Zanex muttered, before smirking at his opponent. "You're going down!"

Zanex sped toward Omega Shroude and let his Materialized Swords deal harm to him. He smirked and took this time to smack him a couple of times with his scabbard before drawing Yami and slicing him up. Omega Shroude tried his best to block, but when a light arrow to his back was enough to stun him and leave him wide open for an attack.

"N-No… This isn't how it was supposed to end…" Omega Shroude gasped, feeling a light emit from his back.

"OK, Zanex! Do your…whatever you do to take this guy down!" Nazuchi cheered.

"Gladly," Zanex smirked, sheathing Yami. "I've saved up an attack just for this occasion. I think I'll be pleased to try it out!"

"I… I won't let you win." Omega Shroude growled, fighting the exhaustion.

"I'm afraid you've already lost," Zanex disappeared like a blur, leaving Omega Shroude to gawk. Before he could even move his head, he found himself getting struck by over a dozen slicing orbs. They were even strong enough to lift him off the ground!

"Whoa… That looks cool." Chalk gaped.

"I know Zanex could make those orb things, but I didn't know he could create so many…" Nazuchi gawked.

As Omega Shroude was hit by the last slicing orb, Zanex appeared above him and thrust his feet down to knock the Forest Tablet off him and left him on his knees when he landed. Upon sheathing Yami, however, Omega Shroude collapsed on the floor.

"Hey, looks like he's done for," Nazuchi smiled, scooping the Forest Tablet off the ground. He inspected it to make sure it was all good. There didn't appear to be any damage left on it, to his relief. "Phew… It's all good."

"You know, this guy felt like a huge pushover," Chalk remarked. "I wonder if all of that stuff I said to him was true…"

"Urrghh… It's not over just…yet…"

The three turned their attention to the exhausted Omega Shroude. He slowly stood up, but he appeared to be holding his left arm, while his right leg was hanging back. They approached him instead.

"Not over? We have the Land Tablet. You're finished." Nazuchi stated.

"I refuse to give up…" Omega Shroude wheezed. "I will not be humiliated like this!"

"Maybe you might learn something. Maybe joining the Shadow King was not the best idea on your part if it only got you beaten up by three people."

Omega Shroude cast a glare at Nazuchi, who turned away from him. "Come on, guys. Let's just go. It's probably best to leave him here, now that he's got nothing left in him."

"OK!" Chalk nodded, following his companion. Zanex began to slowly follow afterward, leaving Omega Shroude to clench his fists in anger.

"No… None of this is right…" Omega Shroude hissed. "There's no way I should be brought down to this… I'm the Shroude leader… I'm above everyone else… These fools should be beneath me…"

Having enough, Omega Shroude let out a scream and charged at the heroes with his double-bladed scythe ready to strike. Unfortunately, he hadn't gone very far, since Zanex was able to catch him and draw his katana just in time to strike him.

Omega Shroude's eyes widened and his mouth was agape from the attack he unexpectedly received. Zanex cast him a cold glare as he was slowly sheathing his katana.

"You are pathetic," Zanex scoffed. "You attack people from behind, you constantly hide to make your move, and your ego is just as bloated as your power."

"Y-You…"

"I will agree with the blonde boy for once about this fight not being worth it now. You were given a chance, but you blew it. And now, you have to pay a price."

"Just you wait, you fool… I will come back much stronger, and with that power, I will put an end to you heroes once and for-"

Zanex decided not to waste any more time with him and fully sheathed his weapon, causing Omega Shroude to explode and leave a small amount of black smoke that faded away in mere seconds. Nazuchi and Chalk heard the explosion and turned to Zanex.

"Hey… What was that just now?" Nazuchi wondered.

"I had to take care of some business," Zanex answered, walking back to the two. "I don't think Omega Shroude will be a big issue now."

"Wait… Don't tell me you did what I think you just did…"

"He was about to attack us, so that was the only option I had. Plus, I probably did him a favor by not letting himself get humiliated by his king."

"I guess you have a point…" Nazuchi sighed. He looked down at the Forest Tablet and then at Zanex. "Say, Zanex… You wanna do the honors?"

"Honors? What do you want?"

"Why don't you hold up the Forest Tablet and release its power into this place?" the blonde boy suggestion, handing the Land Tablet to his companion. "You really were a great help through this forest. Sure, you may not be the nicest of people, but I don't think we could've gotten through this mess without you."

Zanex stared down at the Land Tablet for a moment before looking at Nazuchi. "Fine… I'll do it."

He took the Land Tablet from him and held it up high. Though he wasn't expecting much, he was surprised to see a light emit from the Forest Tablet. The light quickly exploded, causing the darkness around them to disappear and turn the sky back to its natural blue. The swirling vortex in the sky disappeared as well.

"So that vortex was created by Omega Shroude…" Nazuchi trailed. "Interesting…"

_"Thank you kindly, heroes."_

The heroes turned their attention to the pedestal surrounded by the pillars. There, they saw Wizzmo's spirit.

"Hey, it's you!" Nazuchi gasped before realization got to him. "Wait a second… You said you were only limited to the first floor! What gives?"

_"Well, I didn't tell you this, but it was only limited because of a strange dark barrier that was blocking me…" _Wizzmo explained sheepishly. _"But, it's finally gone, so I'm free to explore this place."_

"I hope you being here can be helpful, considering that we need to get out of here," Zanex noted.

_"Ah. Yes. That. This pedestal here will be able to transport you back to the tower's entrance. Just let me use my wizzy power here and I'll get it to work."_

"'Wizzy'?" Chalk couldn't help but snicker at that word, while Nazuchi gave him an annoyed look.

"Oh, grow up. Wizzy isn't anything spe… Actually, that does sound kinda funny!"

Waving his hands on the pedestal, it began to glow purple. _"Stand on this pedestal here, and bam! You're back at the entrance!"_

"Thank you for the help, Wizzmo," Nazuchi thanked, approaching the pedestal. "Hopefully you have some good luck as a spirit in the future!"

"But he's dead," Chalk pointed out.

_"Dead people can have fun too, you know," _Wizzmo pointed out, soon realizing that wasn't the best way to word that. _"Oh, whatever. You people should hurry if you have somewhere to go."_

"Yes we do!" the puffball nodded, standing on the pedestal with Nazuchi. Zanex leaped onto the pedestal, and before they knew it, they were transported out of the top of the tower, leaving Wizzmo's spirit to remain, who slowly faded away.

_The Wizard's Tower was a very strange place in a forest, but Nazuchi and Co. were able to conquer the trials of the tower and defeat the evil Omega Shroude, the leader of the Shroude army. But with his defeat, were all the Shroudes finally put an end to? Though this was a major accomplishment, the heroes feared that there may be greater dangers than the Shroudes out there.  
_

* * *

**Well, that's the end of the third area of this story! Personally, I did enjoy writing this more than the Desert Land, especially the Wizard's Tower. With all the Shroudes in the area, I thought it'd be appropriate to face the leader of them all: Omega Shroude.**

**I wouldn't say Omega Shroude is my favorite boss in terms of character, but I did have some fun writing the battle, especially his angry moments. We might find out a little more about him in the next chapter, though, along with Lilia sabotaging more plans.**


	22. The Search for the Belts

Chapter 22: The Search for the Belts

Lilia sat quietly on the hard, metallic bed in her prison cell while letting out a sigh. She had a lot of trouble trying to sleep because of how uncomfortable it was. In fact, it was hard to tell whether it was day or night out because the castle was so high up in the sky, making it dark outside.

The only thing that kept the cell lit up was a little bit of her magic that was glowing on her hand. Though, this turned out to be a bad idea when the Shadoo Guard noticed a bright light coming from the cell.

_**"****What was that light I just saw?"**_ the Shadoo Guard asked, slowly turning to Lilia. It eyed the cell for any light, but it didn't appear to have any. _**"Hmmmmm… Must be my imagination…"**_

Just as the guard was about to turn away, Yakken appeared right in front of it, causing the Shadoo Guard to jump in shock.

_**"****Y-Y-Yakken, sir!"**_ the Shadoo Guard exclaimed. _**"Wh-What are you doing here?!"**_

"Oh, nothing…" Yakken replied, leaning against the wall. "Though the question is, what are _you_ doing here?"

_**"****I'm on duty at the moment. I'm supposed to make sure the princess does not get out."**_

"Really? Well, I was told you were needed in the castle's lower levels."

_**"****Wait… Really?"**_ the guard gawked. _**"But the Shadow King specifically ordered me to guard the princess!"**_

"Well, the king ordered you to take over a spot there. He said there was a leak going on in one of the pipes in the boiler room, which requires your assistance. There aren't enough minions doing the job, I suppose."

_**"****I would do that, but I would need someone to take over my position."**_

"Perhaps…I could take over. I believe I should keep an eye on the princess."

A grin had appeared on the Shadoo Guard. _**"All right then! I'm off, I suppose!"**_

The Shadoo Guard began to make its exit out of the prison room and down to the lower level…wherever that may be at the moment. Once it was no longer on the same floor, Yakken turned to Lilia and gestured her to come over.

"I never knew there was boiler room in this castle," Lilia remarked.

"Actually, there isn't," Yakken stated, making the princess raise an eyebrow. "That Shadoo Guard isn't the smartest one… It never went down to the lower level, so that should keep it busy for a while."

"OK… So did you hear anything about Nazuchi and that friend of his?"

"Definitely. They were able to defeat the evil Omega Shroude with the help of the Dark Slayer. Even I am surprised to see him joining with those two…"

"Dark Slayer? …Oh, yes. I remember hearing that name."

"I guess they were all a match for Omega Shroude. Then again, he was a bit of a coward, always hiding in the shadows and attacking people from behind. Let's just say that he's not that powerful in terms of attacking head-on. Did you know that he begged to join the Shadow King?"

Lilia slowly shook her head. "No… I never knew that…"

"The Shadow King, while not surprised to discover Omega Shroude's loss, was certainly not happy about those heroes getting the Forest Tablet. To us, that's a pretty good thing, because we are much closer to defeating him with only four more Land Tablets remaining."

"Right… So, what do you want me to do next?"

"If I'm right, the Shadow King will be sending the **Soot Squad**, or SS for short – a group of four working for the Shadow King that far surpass many others when they're a team. The group consists of **Carrex**, the small, greedy one with the power of the earth, **Trifles**, the insane one with the power of fire, **Seurs** the joyful one with the power of water, and **Pikay**, the leader with the power of the air."

"Soot Squad? Is this something that's related to what you need me to do?"

"Absolutely. The Shadow King is giving them gadgets for their belts that create a barrier that's impervious to attacks. I'd say if they were to wear those when fighting Nazuchi and his friends, chances are the fight would be in their favor, and the heroes would end up losing."

"So you just want me to take their belt? But if the king realizes they're missing, then wouldn't he be suspicious over someone taking them?" Lilia mentioned, remembering his suspicion over the blueprints.

"Rest assured. There is more to this than you think." Yakken assured. "For now, I would like you to take that secret passageway to the king's room. We can continue planning there. I also have a little something for you as well!"

Lilia nodded and walked over to the lever by the pile of bones. Still disgusted by them, she made sure not to touch them and pulled the lever to reveal the secret door. As she walked through the dark hallway, there was one thing that was bugging her.

_"So the Shadow King is looking for a power that I have within me…"_ Lilia thought. _"But how does he even know about that? Not even I knew about some hidden power… Perhaps that's one of the reasons why my mother requested me to be taken out of Rosslind – to make sure that queen didn't get her hands on me. …But now look at me. The KING has me instead… This is just great…"_

She was about to make her way into the Shadow King's room until she had discovered the king was already in the room. Lilia took a peek through the hole to see what was going on.

"Great… This is just great." the Shadow King sighed. "Not only are my blueprints of Project Yuke gone, but now Omega Shroude has failed to stop those blasted heroes! I guess I'll just use Project Armageddon and send the Soot Squad after them. They'll get the job done when I give them something special to protect them! Those heroes will be toast!"

_"I guess he's referring to those belts…"_ Lilia thought.

"The only thing that bothers me is that we don't have the fifth Land Tablet… None of my minions have a clue where it went, but I'm certain I know which land it is on. There are a lot of civilians on that land, and I hear there's a big game going on there! My guess is that those heroes will be heading there. The Soot Squad will pummel them down to the ground and gain control of the Land Tablet so we are in control of that place!"

The Shadow King finally stood up and walked over to his door. "Though… Maybe I should get someone to make sure the Soot Squad gets 'em good. I should probably send Yakken there so he can watch them… I'm too busy to do the task myself."

"That's interesting… So the Shadow King's minions don't have the fifth Land Tablet…" Lilia muttered. "But what is Project Armageddon? Is it related to those belts?"

Hearing a voice, the Shadow King raised his head and looked behind him. "Who dares intrude upon my room?! Show yourself!"

Lilia kept quiet and covered her glowing crown just in case. The Shadow King stared behind him for a moment before slowly looking away.

"Perhaps…that was just in my imagination. Anyway, I shouldn't linger here any longer. I have some other business to attend to, then maybe I can go get those belts."

As soon as he left the room, Lilia finally entered the king's room and sighed in relief. Yakken teleported in the room as well, except he was holding a black shroud in his right hand.

"A shroud?" Lilia gawked.

"Yes," Yakken nodded, tossing the shroud to her. "This shroud will make you invisible, making it much easier to sneak around those halls. After last time, I thought I'd find something…easier to use."

Lilia put the shroud over herself, and she, along with the shroud, had disappeared from Yakken's sight. She lowered the item to reveal herself. Yakken gave her a nod to indicate that he could not see her.

"Though, you must keep in mind that just because you cannot be seen does not mean you cannot be sensed. Thankfully, not many of those Shadoo minions can sense what's in their surroundings, but there are people like the Shadow King and I who can. That is why it is best to complete this task before he manages to show up."

"I heard he had some other business to attend to," Lilia recalled. "Perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity for our plan?"

"Precisely," Yakken nodded. "Now, the room you must go in is not in this hallway, actually… You're going to have to go to the left to the door at the end of the hallway. It should take you to a staircase."

"Got it."

"And whatever you do… Don't remove the shroud from yourself. You'd just be putting yourself in danger."

Lilia nodded and watched Yakken disappear from her sights. However, just as she thought she was gone, a voice echoed through her head.

_"I will try to speak to you through my mind to give you some directions. Do not worry. No one but you will be able to hear this voice."_

"All right," Lilia nodded, covering herself with the shroud to make herself invisible. _"It'd be best if I don't speak out loud in the hallway. It might catch some attention…"_

She slowly opened the door, making sure no one was around to spot a door suddenly opening on its own. Seeing the coast was clear, Lilia stepped into the dark hallway and was told to take the left. There only appeared to be one Shadoo walking around in that hallway, to her relief.

_"This shouldn't be too difficult,"_ thought Lilia, making her way past the Shadoo and over to the door. She opened it and found a spiral staircase going down. Lilia carefully walked down the staircase, making sure there were no sign of enemies. She eventually reached the bottom and opened the door to a much larger room. There didn't appear to be anything in this room, which didn't bother her in the slightest. The only thing that bugged her were the two purple eyes depicted on the ground. They were certainly unsettling.

She walked over to the door ahead and entered a room with a small staircase in the center of the room, along with a door dead ahead. The floor was gray and hard, and a purple rug appeared to be leading up to the door and the staircase to her right.

_"Lilia, can you hear me?"_ Yakken asked.

"Yeah, I hear you," Lilia whispered. "Where do I go from here?"

_"You see that staircase? You must go over there. The belts should be located there."_

Lilia obeyed and carefully went up the staircase. She noticed below was nothing but blackness. The two pillars holding the ceiling didn't appear to have any bottom. The thought of falling worried her.

_"Don't worry about falling. Those railings will keep you from falling into the abyss."_ assured Yakken. Lilia sighed in relief and reached the top of the stairs. There was one door to her right, but it appeared to be locked. The other door, however, was not.

Lilia entered the unlocked door and came across a room full of weapons. There were spears, axes, some lockers, a bench, and even a refrigerator.

"Is this supposed to be a gym or an armory?" Lilia gawked.

Yakken appeared beside her and shrugged. "Ehhhh… A bit of both. The belts should be here somewhere…"

"I don't know why you need my help for this when you can probably do this yourself…"

"Oh, I get it…" Yakken trailed, turning away from her with a hint of sorrow in his voice. "You don't wish to help your little boyfriend, is that it? You can just sit in your little prison cell the whole time and look like a stereotypical damsel in distress rather than actually putting yourself to use and stopping the Shadow King with my help. You obviously don't want to send any messages to Nazuchi about anything the king is up to, and I'm sure you'd certainly like to see him once and for-"

"OK, I get it!" Lilia shouted, cutting Yakken off and giving him an annoyed look. "Fine, I'll do it. You do have a bit of a point… Just tell me where the belts are."

Yakken gestured her over to one of the closets, where it was revealed that a red, blue, green and yellow belt was. Lilia approached them and took them off the hanger.

"So… These are the belts?" Lilia inspected them for a moment, looking unimpressed. "They don't appear to be anything special…"

"That's because those are the decoys," Yakken explained. "You're going to replace those with the real ones back upstairs. I can help guide you to that room, but while you're moving, I'm going to see what the Shadow King is doing, just to warn you if he's coming or not."

"All right, fine," Lilia nodded, making her exit out of the room. Meanwhile, Yakken disappeared from the room and decided to go check on his king.

It didn't take Lilia too long to return to the hallway where she once was before. She was then instructed to go back to the room where she had found the blueprints. Obeying, Lilia entered the room and noticed on a desk four belts. They looked very similar, with a symbol of a diamond, club, heart and spade on at least one of them. Lilia eyed the ones she held and noticed the looks were a bit similar.

"I wonder why these decoys were made…" Lilia trailed.

_"Well… Funny story, actually. There were some minions that were trying to 'cosplay' as them, so they made those belts upon hearing the king supplying them with special belts." _Yakken explained before appearing in the room. "Just place those decoys on the desk and you'll be set."

Lilia moved the real belts out of the way and placed the fake ones on the desk. Yakken took the real ones and put them away in his cloak.

"Wait… Why are you taking them?" Lilia questioned.

"I'm going to dispose of these," Yakken answered. "These will no longer be needed here. …Anyway, I tried checking on the king. Bad news, Lilia; he's not in his throne room."

"…Then where is he?"

Just as Yakken was about to answer, they heard the sound of footsteps coming near the door. Lilia gulped as the door opened, revealing the footsteps to be the Shadow King's.

"Well, I better get to those be-" the king paused when he saw Lilia standing in the room. "Wait… What are YOU doing here, princess?!"

Lilia was speechless at the moment as the Shadow King approached her, now towering over her. The look on his face almost seemed like he was about to explode.

"I told that guard to keep an eye on her!" he roared, shaking the room a bit with his voice. His noticed Yakken was in the room as well and turned to him. "Yakken! Perhaps you can explain to me why Princess Lilia managed to escape from her prison!"

"Now now, my king…" Yakken assured, trying to calm him down. "Even I don't know how the princess managed to escape from her prison. However, I DID catch her in this room."

Lilia gawked at Yakken, but he gave her a gesture to roll with it. Meanwhile, the Shadow King began to ponder.

"Is that so? Well… Despite being disappointed with your failure to stop those four heroes, I will commend you for catching our prisoner." the Shadow King smirked as he turned to Lilia. "But… Now that I think about it, I WAS thinking of coming to see her to ask a few questions… So, this actually worked in my favor a bit!"

"Questions? Does this have to do with something about my supposed 'power'?" Lilia asked.

"Not quite, but we will still find your power and use it to rule this world!" he assured. "Anyway, back on topic. I suppose you know more about this Nazuchi character than anyone else, and maybe those other two fools that decided to join him on his quest. I'd like to ask you a few questions about them, and you must be honest about them! I'll ask you three questions, all right?"

Lilia was unsure of what else to say.

"All right, the first question: what is Nazuchi's biggest fear?"

"Nazuchi's biggest fear? I don't know too much about hi-" Lilia stopped for a moment, realizing that she could simply lie. "Well… I know Nazuchi isn't too fond of Mushrooms…"

"Mushrooms? Hmmmmm… Well, fine, I'll take it for granted." the Shadow King replied, not realizing he was being tricked. "Anyway, what disgusts the gray puffball…thingy?"

"I'd say…a Thunder Rage!"

"All right… What about the brown furry one wearing the ripped cloak? What does he hate the most?"

_"Brown furry one wearing a ripped cloak?"_ Lilia thought, her eyes widened. _"He sounds like the one who had taken me out of Rosslind… Does this mean he's with Nazuchi?"_

"Answer me now, princess," demanded the Shadow King.

"Ummmm… He can't stand Ice Storms."

"Good… Yes, very good!" the Shadow King turned to Yakken. "You got all that, didn't you?"

"All of it, my king," Yakken nodded.

"Good. Now take her back to her prison cell and meet me in the throne room. I have a job for you…"

Yakken gave him a nod before taking Lilia out of the room and back to her prison cell. Despite not wanting to go back in there, she couldn't help but let out a silent chuckle, realizing how she managed to trick the Shadow King so easily. Meanwhile, the Shadow King had taken the belts off the desk and marched back to his throne room.

* * *

**Shadow King's throne room-**

After the task was finished, Yakken had showed up in the throne room and was now standing before the Shadow King and his throne. Yakken was holding onto his staff at the moment.

"Yakken, I'm very disappointed in you…" the Shadow King remarked. "I gave you a task to stop those four heroes, but you told me you failed the task. Why so?"

"Well, my king, it was because those heroes were much too strong for me," Yakken explained. "I may carry this staff, but they also carry a large sword and a magical staff. However, I can give you one thing: that Toad had a bloated ego."

"Too strong? You're one of the strongest of my minions! There's a reason why you're my right-hand man! To lose to such heroes is _unacceptable!_"

"My apologies, king," the cloaked man slowly lowered his head in shame. "I did not mean to disappoint you…"

"I'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself," the Shadow King informed, making Yakken raise his head to face him. "That information we got from the princess… I want you to go to where the heroes are heading next and create said objects to stop them. This will surely work well in our favor…"

"As you wish."

"I also want you to spy on the Soot Squad too, just to make sure things work well for them. Speaking of the Soot Squad, I should introduce you to them."

As if on cue, four figures came crashing through the ceiling. The first one to be noticed was a small, chubby being wearing a helmet with a symbol of a diamond sticking out, a visor showing off his yellow eyes, and also yellow armor with the chest plate containing a diamond symbol. He seemed to have left a crack in the floor, which displeased the Shadow King.

The next figure who had landed was in red, but he was much taller than the chubby one. He wore sunglasses to hide his burning red eyes, and his helmet had a symbol of a club, along with his chest plate. A flaming aura surrounded him, and he also appeared to be twitching as well.

The third figure was in blue, and was shorter than the red one. She appeared to have more of a feminine figure than the other two, with her helmet and chest plate having a symbol of a heart. A blonde ponytail appeared from behind her helmet, and her blue eyes glowed through her visor. In her hand was a ball of water energy.

The final figure was in green and sported green eyes. His symbol on his chest plate and helmet was a spade, and his height was in between the blue and red one. Judging by him landing in the front, it was assumed that he was the leader. A small gust of wind blew through the dark air of the room.

Before the Shadow King could speak, however, the leader, Pikay, smirked and turned to his teammates. "All right, mates! Are you ready for our introduction?"

Carrex was the first one to make a strange pose by moving his arms to his left and standing on his tippy toes. "Carrex is here!"

The red one, Trifles, began to spin and appear at the back of the group, a grin forming under his helmet. "Heh heh! I am Trifles!"

Seurs, the blue one, raised her arms in the shape of a triangle and raised her left leg sideways. "Zis one here is Seurs!"

Pikay kneeled on the ground and spread his arms out. "I'm their leader, Pikay! And together we are…"

"The Soot Squad!" the four exclaimed in unison. Yakken looked at them in disbelief and slowly found his hand connecting to his face.

_"If these are the ones being sent, we're doomed…" _Yakken thought.

The Shadow King looked at their poses in disbelief. "Soot Squad… I already know who you guys are. This is no time for stupid poses."

"But zat is important for our introductions," Seurs noted.

"Plus, Carrex always enjoys making poses!" Carrex mentioned.

"Allow me to speak for you mates," Pikay decided, approaching the king. "What is your desire, my king?"

"Go to our unsettled land and find three heroes by the names of Nazuchi, Chalk and Zanex. If you find the Land Tablet there, get it at all costs, you hear me! Failure to so will result in a severe punishment."

"Y-Y-You mean…" Trifles gulped.

"Yes. That."

"Fear not, our king," Pikay assured. "We, the Soot Squad, are capable of handling these three fools that oppose you! For we are…"

"Yes, I know who you guys are," the Shadow King sighed. "Just get the job done. Find that Land Tablet and eliminate the heroes! …Oh, yes, I nearly forgot! Just to make sure you all get the job done, I've given you four special belts to help you eliminate those heroes!"

He tossed a belt of a matching color and symbol to each of the members. Staring at them for a moment, they put them on. "Now, those things should only be used against those heroes. You don't want to waste its energy on anything else."

"Awwww… Zis belt certainly goes well with my armor, oui?" Seurs cheered. "Monsieur Shadow King, thank you ever so!"

"Yes, mate! This'll be most helpful." Pikay grinned, touching a button on his visor. "We assure you, sire, that we will complete your task! Let us go now, my squadron! Time to pay these four fools a visit!"

The other members nodded and performed a pose before disappearing. Yakken gawked while the Shadow King rolled his eyes.

"Yes… They tend to do that. Real cheesy." the Shadow King mumbled. "Yakken, you better come back with good news… Because if you fail, you might be joining the others who have failed me."

"Fine," Yakken replied coldly, using his staff to create a purple barrier around him that made him leave the room. With no one else left in the room, the Shadow King let out a sigh and relaxed.

"I am hoping Yakken does not fail… Though I wouldn't consider him the friendliest man, it would be a real shame for one of my most powerful minions to go. He still hasn't changed ten years ago…"

After pondering for a moment, an idea struck the king. "Hmmmmm… Now that I think about it, maybe I should see how things are going with my lovely wife. I hadn't gotten to speak to her about the new town."

* * *

**Shadow Land-**

In front of the large, completed palace, the Shadow Queen was walking away from the entrance and getting a glimpse of the new, finished town developed by her minions. Beside her were two floating, purple beanish-shaped creatures that had two, small robot antennas on the sides of their heads, spinning eyes, and four three fingered floating hands. What was strange about these creatures was that the top and bottom part of their heads were detached from each other.

The woman was pleased as she finally walked into the town. Above her was the darkness she loved, and around her were her dark minions that were bowing down to their leader. Dark blue Dry Bones called Dark Bones and even Demon Bones were on their knees, worshipping her.

_**"****Muh huh huh huh… Excellent! This is exactly what I want this place to be."**_ she cackled. _**"I'll admit that knight managed to destroy a bit here, but his design was nothing special. I much prefer this kind of atmosphere."**_

As she smirked, lightning struck in the sky. The only difference was that unlike normal lightning this type was dark in color.

"My queen," the woman stopped for a moment and saw one of her minions approaching her. "I think we have a little problem…"

_**"****A problem? What do you mean?"**_ the Shadow Queen gawked, turning to Yorishi.

"You remember those four heroes that tried to stop you?" Yorishi reminded.

_**"****You mean those foolish pests that made me lose the Crystal Stars?"**_ the Shadow Queen growled, giving Yorishi a glare. _**"What about them?"**_

"I'm sorry to say this, but… They're already searching for them. So far, they've already gotten two! That blonde kid ended up getting a hold of one, so that means three have already been found."

_**"****Are you sure about this?"**_ the queen gaped. _**"This is most troubling… Go exterminate them immediately."**_

"Yes, ma'-a—Wait, right now?" Yorishi paused.

_**"****Yesss. That is your job, correct? Find those four heroes and that blonde scoundrel that escaped Tagel and destroy them. I will not ask you another time."**_

Yorishi was uncertain for a moment, but he eventually gave her queen a nod. "Very well… I will do as you please. But, one question… Who should I go after first?"

_**"****I don't care who you go after first. That is all up to you."**_ the Shadow Queen answered, giving him an irritated look. _**"Perhaps if you complete both tasks, I can give you a raise."**_

Liking the idea of more money, Yorishi grinned under his helmet and nodded. However, just as he was about to go, the Shadow Queen stopped him and used her dark magic to conjure up a little weapon. It appeared to be a sword surrounded in black smoke.

_**"****Take this with you. That crossbow and that rusty sword probably won't be enough to handle them."**_

"Thank you, my queen," Yorishi bowed, accepting the weapon. "I will do my best."

As he began to walk away from the Shadow Queen, he wasn't aware of a figure hiding behind one of the buildings in astonishment.

"So… This is what that evil witch has created here… It really does smell of evil."

As Yorishi passed by the same building, his helmet's visor seemed to pick up something nearby. Drawing his crossbow, he aimed it at the building.

"Show yourself, coward! I know you're there!" he called out.

Seeing that no one was coming out, he proceeded to fire, hoping to at least shoot the target. Yorishi walked behind the building to catch his target, but he was caught in surprise by a missile coming his way.

"WHOA! What in the world?! Was that a missile!?"

Standing in front of him was a figure in a gray, armor-like suit with a dark gray cannon attached to the person's right arm. The figure also had a red visor, and the pauldrons, while not being massive, had some spikes on them. Before Yorishi could say another word, the figure fired a yellow energy projectile from the cannon, which nearly hit him and knocked him back.

"Holy… Who was that person?"

Another projectile came his way, forcing him to jump back. The Shadow Queen ended up noticing him and saw a projectile coming his way. Pointing her finger at the yellow shot, it ended up exploding.

"Thank you, my queen…" Yorishi sighed.

_**"****I didn't do that to save you,"**_ the Shadow Queen retorted. _**"I was just curious about who fired that."**_

"So… You're the one responsible for this, huh?" the queen noticed the figure make its appearance to her. When she saw the arm cannon being aimed at her, she didn't appear to be afraid.

_**"****Hmmmm? And who might you be?"**_

"I'm Mars. I'm a bounty hunter from the planet Tallon IV. I was told about some monsters that needed to be exterminated. My guess is that it's you, am I correct?"

**"**_**Ah, so I have some people targeting me now… How interesting…"**_ the Shadow Queen grinned. _**"You are rather foolish to take this task…"**_

"I'm only doing this for the money," Mars replied. "There is a high pay for exterminating these dark monsters roaming this planet. Besides, I wouldn't call myself foolish when I'm one of the world's greatest bounty hunters."

"Wait, what?!" Yorishi exclaimed. "No way! I'm the world's greatest-"

_"**Quiet, Yorishi," **_the Shadow Queen silenced, making the bounty hunter quiet down. _**"World's greatest bounty hunter… Very interesting… Many men who opposed me claimed to be the 'greatest' at something, and they all fell before me. What makes you think a mortal such as yourself is any different?"**_

"Let me face him, my queen," Yorishi suggested. "I'd rather face him myself."

"'Him'? My voice says otherwise." Mars replied, slightly irritated, though not too surprised. She removed her helmet to reveal a human brunette female around her mid-twenties with her hair in a bun. Both Yorishi and the Shadow Queen were a bit surprised while she put her helmet back on.

"Wait… This person's a _she?!_" Yorishi gaped.

_**"****Very interesting… You're the first woman to ever face against me."**_ the Shadow Queen mused. _**"However, like all the others, you will be exterminated."**_

Mars fired her Power Beam at the Shadow Queen, only for her to merely swat it away. Though this surprised her, she fired a couple more shots, but each one was easily swatted away just like the first one. When a missile fired, the Shadow Queen aimed her finger at it, causing it to explode.

With a snap of her finger, a purple, ghostly hand had risen from the ground and grabbed a hold of Mars. She tried to break herself free, but the hand's grip was much stronger. The Shadow Queen slowly approached her with a ball of dark energy in her hand.

"So stubborn… I guess I might as well finish the job now." the Shadow Queen grinned, aiming the energy at Mars. She, unfortunately, was interrupted by a spirit that had appeared before her.

_"Ah, there you are, my queen," _the Shadow King said, appearing transparent before her and Yorishi. _"It's been quite a while since we last spoke."_

The Shadow Queen stopped her attack and turned to the king with a smirk. _**"Yes, I do believe so. What brings you here?"**_

"_I just wanted to see how things were going," _he looked over at Mars with a surprised look. _"Now who is this? He seems strange…"_

"I'm a she," Mars pointed out. "Yeesh, you people must be deaf if you can't tell by my voice. Then again, you do look old, so maybe your geezerish traits might not make you understand."

_"A wise gu—er, girl this is… What is she doing here?"_

_**"****One of my minions happened to find her," **_the Shadow Queen explained, turning back to Mars. _**"But don't worry about her. I already plan on exterminating her."**_

_"Hmmmmmm… I think I have a much better idea!" _the Shadow King grinned. _"You shouldn't have to worry about dealing with this intruder. I say we let the Soot Squad use her for target practice before they eradicate those heroes."_

_**"****The Soot Squad? Hmmmmm… Now that I think about it, eliminating her wouldn't be much fun like this. She's hardly much of a challenge, and there would be no satisfaction in killing her. Maybe if she was a little stronger, then it would be fun."**_

The ghostly hand had disappeared, freeing Mars. However, just before she could open fire on the Shadow Queen, her eyes flashed red, causing dark lightning to strike her and knock her unconscious. She turned to Yorishi and pointed at the unconscious bounty hunter.

_**"****Yorishi, since those heroes are possibly heading to where the Soot Squad is, I want you to clean this mess off my town and dump it there."**_

"I'm on it," Yorishi replied, picking up Mars and pressing a button on his wrist. With that, he was out of the Shadow Land.

_**"****Do you really believe the Soot Squad can take those three fools on?" **_the Shadow Queen asked, turning back to the king.

_"I'm quite sure," _the Shadow King assured. _"There are only three of them, and four of them! Not only are they outnumbered, but they'll be overpowered by them as well! I have much confidence in them…"_

_**"****Perhaps… I would go and watch, but I have some other business to take care of at the Palace of Shadow."**_

_**"**I see… But I can assure you that I've done all I can to make sure those three will fail miserably! With Yorishi going after those four heroes, there's no way our plan could possibly fail!"_

* * *

**If you people thought I forgot about Mars, well, she's right here.  
**

**The whole thing with the Shadow King asking Lilia questions is a big reference to Paper Mario's third interlude, where Bowser asks Peach some questions regarding Mario. As for the Soot Squad... Well, they're based off the cards people play games with (suit, soot, you know).**

**You might see that I didn't put the part with the four heroes and Nazuchi here. Well, I decided not to because I didn't want the chapter to be TOO long, so I chose to split it (I did that with the past interludes too) to make it much easier for not only you guys, but myself.**


	23. Ancient Discoveries

Chapter 23: Ancient Discoveries

"Aw, yeah! Two Crystal Stars already! If we keep this up, we're going to beat that Shadow Queen for sure!"

Toadburt continued to show off his massive ego while spinning the Gold Star on the tip of his finger. The four heroes had just made their way into Leaflet Town and were ready to leave. "Though, we still have that Emerald Star missing… I can't believe that loser still refuses to give that to us!"

"Calm down, Toadburt," Goombi said. "Just because we don't have one star doesn't mean it's the end of the world. I'm sure that blonde boy will come to his senses soon and give it to us later. What does leave me curious is that brown, furry one that was with those two…"

"An interesting fellow he was, though he didn't seem too friendly," Koopo recalled. "He didn't seem like the one to go with two people like those two…"

"Well, he's not our business," Bonnie stated. "However, the only thing annoying me is Toadburt's ego."

"I don't have a big ego," Toadburt objected. "I know I'm hot, muscular and handsome, but that doesn't make me have a massive ego."

"But you… Actually, never mind. You never listen to what we have to tell you anyway."

"Right you are! Anyway, how's about we go to the next area? I'm sure the next star will be there!"

"OK, but Toadburt…" Goombi trailed, approaching him. "I think we should talk about something."

"Like what? I'm perfectly fine."

"If by perfectly fine, you mean lacking a weapon and giving us some real help, then yeah, you are perfectly fine," Bonnie deadpanned.

"We…or rather, _you_, have spent most of our coins on stuff like magazines on how to be cool, and unnecessary items such as the cape you're wearing," Goombi explained. "Don't you think you should be spending money on something like, you know, a weapon?"

"Well, I can assure you that no monster would want to lay their hands on me," Toadburt proclaimed proudly, putting his hands on his hips. "They'll just be kneeling down to me, proclaiming me as a great hero."

"No, you'll just be an easy target," Bonnie stated. "Get out of your mind for a moment and think logically! If you keep this up, we might as well leave you."

"Hey! I was the one who came up with this idea in the first place!"

The other three blinked for a moment and realized he was correct. However, just before they could say anything, a Leaface approached them from behind.

"Hey, are you guys the one who got rid of the darkness around this area?" he asked. "Because I don't see any more darkness lurking around this forest."

Taking advantage of this, Toadburt turned around, put on a cool guy face, and pointed at himself. "Yeah, that was us all right, especially me!"

"Oh, wow! That's incredible! We seriously have to dub you as heroes!" the Leaface cheered. "We should throw a celebration!"

"Well… I would love to, but bein' a hero is serious business. We have some dangers lurking at another area."

"Oh… Well, then I'm going to give you something! Hold on a minute!" the Leaface quickly went into his house, and after a minute, he came back with a gray sword with a red handle. A trigger happened to be right on the handle as well. "This is a special sword that used to be owned by my father, but I think I can entrust it to a hero like you."

Toadburt proudly took the weapon from him and looked at the trigger. "Hey, what the heck is this trigger supposed to be? Looks kinda weird…"

"If you hold it down, you can increase the sword's power. It starts to glow red after you hold the trigger for the right amount of time. Though, you can't hold it forever, or else its power won't increase as you hold it longer, so you need to stop at one point and rev up its power again."

"Well that should be good!" Toadburt smirked, putting the sword on his back. "Have no fear, leaf person! I will take care of this sword and use it to eliminate all evil!"

"Thanks! You wouldn't believe how terrible it would be for that to break. I hope you take good care of it, and hopefully it will make my father proud… Good luck on your quest, though!"

When the Leaface had finally left, Goombi, Bonnie and Koopo looked at Toadburt in surprise, though Bonnie was the only one to face palm at his stupidity.

"Well, now… Looks like Mr. Handsome has just gotten himself a cool-lookin' sword!" Toadburt proclaimed coolly. "So, you think I'm useless now?"

"The only thing you need to get rid of is that ego of yours and take this quest more seriously. Then maybe you might be very helpful." Goombi declared.

"Sure, whatever," the Toad looked at his sword with a smirk. "Man, I can't wait to use this against that blonde loser when we find him!"

"I think it would be much better to use it against the Shadow Queen and her monsters," Koopo pointed out. "We're here to stop that witch, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah… Anyway, let's not waste any more time here. We've gotta get moving right away!"

The other three had to agree with him and began to follow Toadburt out of the Forest Land and to…wherever the next place was.

* * *

**Dead Forest-**

"Well, that certainly was a bit of an adventure there, wouldn't you guys agree?" Nazuchi asked while he and his friends making their way up a hill. Of the three, Zanex appeared to be using the least amount of effort to go up.

"I'd say throwing those two people into that lava was a bit of an adventure," Chalk remarked, making Nazuchi feel guilty once again.

"I…think it's for the best that we never mention that incident again."

"All right… So, how do we get outta here now? Do we have to backtrack all the way?"

"Looks like it," Zanex answered, making his way up to the top of the hill. "I'm going to move on ahead."

"No! We gotta stick together!" Nazuchi shouted. "Plus, you wouldn't enjoy waiting for us, right?"

Zanex looked back at them with annoyed expressions. "Fine… But I'm not going to run through this forest with you guys. However, the only problem is is that I don't know where the exit is."

"But we do!" Chalk proclaimed.

"If that's the case, then…" Zanex stopped for a moment as he took out the silver Chaos Emerald. _"I don't know if I can trust one of them in holding this…"_

"Hey, did someone hit you in the head or something?" the puffball asked until he noticed the emerald. "Oh, look! It's that thing!"

Zanex looked at Chalk for a moment and quickly decided to place the emerald in Nazuchi's hands instead.

"Hey, why're you giving me this?" Nazuchi wondered.

"Look, this is the only time I'm going to let someone hold onto that, but after this, I want it back immediately," Zanex stated. "You saw me use that power to teleport, right? Well, not many who know of these gems knows of the power of Chaos Control."

"So why are you letting me use it?"

"Because you probably know the way out of this forest, and I wouldn't put my trust on the buffoon over there," the hedgehog pointed back at Chalk, who pouted in response. "Just think of what place you want to go, and say Chaos Control out loud."

"All right…" Nazuchi slowly closed his eyes and began to imagine the town he and Chalk had come across from the yellow bridge. Opening his eyes, he held the Chaos Emerald in front of him and exclaimed, "Chaos Control!"

A bright flash emitted from the emerald, and soon the three disappeared from the barren, dead forest.

* * *

**Leaflet Town-**

Nazuchi stared in shock when he felt his surroundings suddenly change from barren to green. The three now stood in the middle of the town, with the yellow, glowing bridge up ahead.

"Wow… That was impressive." Nazuchi gaped, staring at the emerald. "I can't believe I managed to somehow teleport!"

"Ahem…" Zanex held his hand out, gesturing him to hand over the emerald. Nazuchi complied and returned the emerald to its rightful owner. They were about to move, but, fate did not seem to be on their side when they heard some screams.

"It's the Dark Slayer! Run for it!"

Many Leaface people began to run upon seeing Zanex. Nazuchi and Chalk looked at him for a moment, but they soon remembered why they were afraid of him.

"Oh, yeah! You attacked some people here!" Chalk said out loud.

"Well, actually, they weren't real people. They were monsters." Nazuchi pointed out. "Though, I don't think these people should really fear you… We can explain everything!"

So the two heroes decided to go to some of the scared Leafaces and tried to convince them that Zanex was not a threat to them. Unfortunately, they were not too convinced with their words, but after a long explanation of what happened, some of them were starting to calm down.

"OK, so let me get this straight…" one Leaface started. "So this Zanex guy was actually going after those monsters that were in the forest?"

"Yup!" Chalk nodded.

"So, that means those monsters were responsible for the mayor and even the others' demise…"

"Well… Ummm… I don't know about that…" Nazuchi trailed.

Just before anything else could be said, they heard the sounds of mumbling coming from Mayor Leafing's house. An old Leaface came hopping out with a rope tied around his body and a piece of tape covering his mouth. Some were even surprised.

"Hey… Isn't that him?" the blonde boy gawked. He walked up to the Mayor and pulled the tape off his mouth, making him let out a yelp. He also undid the rope around him so he was free.

"Those no-good monsters! Who do they think they are, tying up a poor, helpless old man?" Leafing grumbled. "Those monsters sure are going to get what's coming!"

"Wait… So those monsters decided to tie them up?" Chalk gawked. "I thought they'd actually…"

"I thought so myself, but they chose to tie me up and lock me in my own, stinky closet! Now tell me where they are so I can give them a good whoopin'!"

"Uhhh... Hate to break it to you, but they're gone." Nazuchi stated. "...Though, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing."

"Whuzzit? They're gone? Who was responsible for this then?"

"He is," Chalk answered, pointing to Zanex. The other Leafaces stared at the mayor in shock as he approached the aloof hedgehog.

"Now, sonny... Can I get your name?"

"Why do you care so much?" Zanex asked. "I'd rather be leaving this place."

"Well, I just wanted to thank you for getting rid of those monsters. I mean, with them throwing people in closets and taking the shape of them, we'd be in for something serious had it not been for you. Heck, we'd probably consider you a hero!"

"Wow... What an honor." Chalk gaped.

Zanex turned away from Leafing. "I wasn't destroying those monsters to save you. I only did it because they were getting in _my_ way."

"Hmmmm... Well, if that's what you think, so be it. But I do think this is something you should be proud of." Leafing pointed out. "I think someday you'll remember what you've done for us and be proud."

"You do what you want, but right now I should be going," Zanex declared, speeding away over to the yellow road.

"Wait, Zanex!" Nazuchi cried, but it was too late. He was too far through the road to even hear him. "Yeesh... Is he deserting us like this?"

"You should probably get going now," Leafing suggested. "Do not worry about us or him. Don't you have something to do?"

"Absolutely!" Chalk declared. "We better get going too, Blondie!"

"All right..." Nazuchi trailed, following Chalk out of the Forest Land. It didn't take them too long to not see the forest behind them. For the Leafaces, a sense of peace had finally returned.

"Hey, who were those guys that were just here?" a Leaface from earlier asked.

"Well, they were the ones to get rid of those monsters, of course," Leafing answered.

"But I heard a Toad and his three comrades did it..." he pondered for a moment until he realized something. "Wait a sec... I just gave that sword to that Toad!"

* * *

**Land of the Ancients-**

Zanex was put to a sudden halt when he had finally set foot on the landscape that stood before him. There was a town with tents rather than houses, and past that town was a temple, which caught his attention the most. Outside of town was Merlon's tent, and near that tent was a large, mysterious door with three beams shooting out.

"This place... Where in the world am I?" Zanex gawked.

"You happen to be in the Land of the Ancients," a voice answered, catching Zanex's attention. He turned to the voice and saw the old shaman approach him. "I welcome you here, Chosen One."

Zanex was about to ask him a question regarding that topic, but it wasn't enough for him to care, so he turned away from him and walked away.

"I see you appeared to be troubled..."

"I'm not troubled. I just want to find a way out of this place so I can get home, so you can do me a big favor and leave me be."

"I see..." Merlon slowly turned away from him, though a smirk had formed underneath his cloaked hood. "However, even if you run across this place, you will not find your home, Rosslind."

Zanex quickly turned back to him upon hearing "Rosslind". "How do you know about that place?"

Merlon turned back to him, but with a solemn look. "I'm afraid to tell you this, but Rosslind has fallen into the darkness by the Shadow Queen's power..."

"You mean it was destroyed?"

"I'm afraid it is something related to that," Merlon answered. "You see, the Shadow Queen actually targeted your place first of all the lands around here. This was mainly done to get a hold of Princess Lilia. Thankfully, her mother, Queen Silvia, foresaw the evil witch's arrival, but had very little time to get her out. I believe when she heard of your speed, she wanted you to take her to Tagel, quite possibly to warn her father, King Braze."

"I remember that," Zanex grumbled. "I didn't choose to take her out, you know. I didn't have much of a choice..."

"There you are!" Nazuchi panted, making his way onto the Land of the Ancients with Chalk. "You really should've traveled with us here..."

"Ah, Nazuchi and Chalk! It's very nice to meet you!" Merlon said happily. "I was just telling Zanex here a little something he probably never knew about. Come join me in my tent and I will explain everything."

"Oh, boy! We're going camping!" Chalk proclaimed. "I call bringing the marshmallows!"

"Uhhh... Yeah, sure, go do that." Nazuchi said, unsure of how else to respond.

* * *

**Merlon's house-**

"So the Shadow Queen came to Rosslind to find Lilia, right? And she was taken out of Rosslind by Zanex and taken to Tagel to warn the king?"

"That is how the story goes," Merlon nodded.

"Last time I recall, Lilia said something about Zanex coming out of nowhere... Perhaps she didn't know of him or something, or maybe she wasn't expecting his help?"

"Probably the latter," Zanex answered. "I remember her being a bit surprised. But I don't know what this whole 'Chosen One' thing is about."

"Perhaps I should mention a little history," Merlon decided, though not all of them didn't feel too eager to listen. "Many, many years ago, six different weapons were created and wielded by six fighters. The weapons they carried included a glowing light sword, a paintbrush with elemental effects, a katana with the power of darkness, an arm cannon capable of shooting missiles, a hammer that has the power to smash high defenses, and a staff that can extend many feet. With these weapons, they were able to fend off evil lurking in the world. However, these fighters suddenly vanished, with their weapons being left behind. Not many people have known where these sacred weapons were, but for those who found them, they were quite difficult to use. Their power was too great for even them."

"I guess this sword was found by one of your ancestors, right?" Nazuchi asked, staring at his Sword of Light.

"Correct. However, none of them were even able to withstand the awesome power of the Sword of Light. You, however, were able to do so, which could possibly mean that there might be a connection between you and the one who once wielded that weapon, or it is possible you could handle its power..."

"Man, I'm so awesome if this paintbrush ended up accepting me as it wielder," Chalk said proudly, spinning his paintbrush.

"There could be many reasons for you people to be able to wield those weapons. I also know that even if one does wield the weapon, they can't use their full potential if the weapon does not truly accept them." Merlon turned to Zanex. "Perhaps our blacksmith, Merlpon, can look at your weapon. He knows more about the six weapons than I do, and I believe he can identify the ones who once wielded those."

Zanex looked at Merlon with an annoyed expression. "Sorry, old man, but I'm not interested. I don't care if I'm a chosen one. If I'm a part of some stupid prophecy, then count me out. I'm going."

"But you cannot leave, as the Land of Ancients is surrounded by water."

"I know that already, but I'm willing to take that risk. I may not be a great swimmer, but with enough speed, I can run across the water. You can have fun with your little quest, but I won't be having any part in it."

"Zanex! Wait!" Nazuchi cried as the hedgehog bolted out of the house. He was nearly gone in a blink of an eye, leaving his mouth wide open. "He...abandoned us?"

"Hmmmmm... A stubborn one he is." Merlon remarked. "Well, for now, I do suggest you place the Land Tablet in its rightful place."

"Yeah!" Chalk exclaimed, raising one of his stubby hands. "...Wait, did he have the Land Tablet?"

"Uh oh..." Nazuchi gulped.

"I see... Well, I think it would be best for you to go find him." Merlon suggested.

"But he's WAY too fast! How are we supposed to catch up to him on the water?!"

"I believe he won't be leaving this island anytime soon..."

* * *

**Near the water-**

Zanex stood in front of the island's coast and looked at the sun that was slowly setting. He looked down at the water for a brief moment and saw his own reflection. The water was never something he liked to go in, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to being around it for a long amount of time.

_"Well, this is it. I'm finally going to go home and stop those monsters."_ Zanex thought, taking a couple of steps back. He took a deep breath and clenched his fists. After he thought he was ready, he instantly bolted toward the water and closed his eyes.

However, he felt something suddenly bump him in the head and knock him onto the wet sand. Zanex let out a moan and slowly stood up. He noticed in front of him was a green ripple that slowly faded away. Curiosity had roamed inside his mind as he approached the water and tried to feel for anything. It was then he noticed a green ripple in the shape of a hand right where his hand was. Removing his hand from the mark, it too had faded away. It felt solid, but it didn't feel like anything should've been there.

_"A barrier's in the way..."_ Zanex thought, grabbing his katana's hilt. _"Well, this shouldn't be a problem when I cut through it!"_

Zanex drew his blade swiftly and struck the barrier, only for his katana to bounce off and force him back. His weapon was slightly shaking from the impact as well.

"What the... Nothing's working..." he growled, putting his weapon away. He paused for a moment and remembered his Chaos Emerald. "Well, if I can't get off this island that way, I know a much easier way to do so!"

He took out the emerald and held it in front of him. "Chaos Control!"

To his surprise, nothing happened.

"...Chaos Control!"

Still nothing.

"What is going on? This should be working!" Zanex exclaimed. "Unless... There's something interrupting the signal. I don't know what it is, but I guess I have no choice but...to ask. I hate resorting to getting help..."

He looked off at the distance and noticed Myrtle Town in the distance, along with a temple at the top of a hill. The temple looked interesting, but there was not much of a reason to go there. He quickly dashed to Myrtle Town and appeared there within seconds.

Zanex took a look at the tent with a mug on top and decided to go in there first. There wasn't much inside except for a bar stand and a few chairs. Its interior was dark gray in color as well. Merlerry was busy trying to clean one of his cups before the hedgehog came in.

"Ho ho! A customer?" Merlerry smiled. "What could I get you?"

"Look, can you answer a question for me? And it better be quick."

"Well, sure. I do know a lot of history of this place. Of course, if you want to hear a story of mine, just pay ten coins."

"I want to know how to get off this island. I tried running, but there was some barrier in the way. Cutting it did nothing, and teleporting out of here did nothing either."

"Ah, yes... That." Merlerry replied with a sigh. "Well, to answer your question... We keep a magical, invisible barrier around this island to prevent any of the Shadow King or Queen's monsters from invading. That means we've cut any transmission to get here to prevent them from teleporting as well."

"Is there a way to get rid of that?"

"Well, that's something I don't know of. Even then, it's not recommended that you try to break the barrier, or else we'd all be in serious trouble."

"I don't care about that," Zanex said honestly. "I'm trying to get off this island, and I will do whatever it takes."

"I see..." Merlerry trailed, realizing that arguing with him would not work. "Well, then I guess I should let you in on a secret. There's actually some ancient ruins underneath the temple. I actually stumbled upon a pipe leading underground right here in this bar. Here, let me show you."

He walked over to the end of the room and opened a secret door that blended in with the wall. Zanex followed him into a smaller room with a gray pipe leading underground. "Perhaps your answers will await down there?"

"That's all I need," Zanex replied before jumping down the pipe. When he was gone, Merlerry decided to leave the small room so Zanex could go to his own business. He quickly got back to business once the secret door finally closed.

When Zanex came out of the pipe, he found himself in a dark room with broken pillars on the floor. The color of the floor appeared to be a very old, grayish color. Some of the tiles were even broken.

Zanex looked at one of the pieces of the ruin on the ground, and with one touch from his shoe, it turned into dust.

_"This place must be very old... Maybe over a thousand years old..."_

The doorway ahead was blocked by some rubble, but unfortunately, it didn't turn to dust upon touching it. Instead, Zanex decided to go into a ball and smash through it, creating a hole in the shape of his ball form. The rest of the rubble ended up crumbling and eventually turned into dust.

He ended up coming across a long , narrow hallway with a small amount of rubble blocking the way. Rather than getting in a ball again, Zanex took his blade out and pointed it away from him and started running. Each time Yami made contact with the rubble, it turned into dust.

_"This should make things easier for me..."_

When Zanex had reached the end of the hallway, he ran through the doorway and walked into a room with a large body of sewage between him and the doorway up ahead. There was also a door beside him as well, but that was nothing important, because across the water were a couple of floating boxes.

A sense of relief filled Zanex's mind as he jumped onto each crate and made it to the door way ahead, leading into a larger room with a small staircase leading to a podium. Looking up to his left and right, there appeared to be some broken stain-glassed windows. One thing he noticed was that those windows seemed to have a depiction of a couple of shamans, but because they were broken, their images weren't full.

Zanex raised one of his eyebrows as he explored the room and made his way to the podium. There didn't appear to be anything lurking around the room at all.

"What was the point of coming here if there's nothing for me to find?" Zanex questioned. "There's no use in staying here any longer. I'm leaving."

Just as he was about to go, however, a calm, old voice interrupted him.

_"Hold on, do not go just yet."_

Zanex turned around and saw a transparent spirit of what appeared to be a shaman in blue. Like most shamans, he had a star orb right below his white, curly mustache.

"You look like that old man I ran into," Zanex remarked.

_"You mean Merlon? He is a descendant of mine."_ the shaman informed. _"My name is Merlight. I used to live here a very long time ago. Believe it or not, this place where you stand was once above ground."_

Zanex ignored Merlight and began to open the door. Seeing this, the spirit reappeared in front of the hedgehog, though he appeared unfazed by his appearance.

"Move," he suggested.

_"I must ask... What brings you down here? Not many people tend to come down here. In fact, you're the first person in decades to appear in these underground ruins."_

Zanex glared at Merlight, but seeing that the spirit would not leave him be, he finally gave up and answered, "I'm trying to find a way off this island."

_"Escape this island?" _Merlight gawked._ "But this is the safest place you'll be from the Shadow King and Queen's forces. Why would you want to go out there?"_

"I'm trying to get back to my home, Rosslind," Zanex explained, crossing his arms and turning away from Merlight. "I'd try to get out of here if there wasn't a barrier and some sort of magic getting in my way. The person who put that up was rather foolish..."

_"I would not go as far to say that it was foolish,"_ the spirit cut in. _"That barrier was put up for good reasons. How do you think this place is now underground? Evil had showed up and tried to attack this place when I was once alive. They managed to make the place shake and cause it to sink into the ground, but thankfully it was barricaded by an invisible barrier."_

"I didn't need a lecture on what happened to this place."

_"Well, I am trying to explain to you why this barrier is very important. I wish I could've put it up before those monster invaded..."_

Now this brought Zanex's attention. "So that was your responsibility, huh? Well, if you're responsible for creating it, then you know how to get rid of it."

_"Sadly, I cannot change that,"_ Merlight stated as he slowly shook his head. _"As a spirit, I am not as powerful and would not be capable of doing such a thing. Even if I were alive, I wouldn't do so in order to keep this place protected."_

"Then I have no reason to be here any longer."

_"A stubborn one, are you?"_ the shaman wondered before taking a look at the katana he held. His eyes were widened in shock. _"Is that the legendary dark blade Yami?!"_

"Yeah, it is," Zanex answered annoyingly. "Now go away. I'm just going to find another way out of here."

_"That blade was one of the weapons used to fend off the great evil that had attacked the Land of the Ancients. However, the wielder of Yami could not show off its true power, making him one of the weakest of the legendary Chosen Ones..."_

"True power? You mean there's more to Yami than I thought?" Zanex asked, now getting curious.

_"Indeed. It is said to be a very powerful weapon in the hands of the right person who can unleash its true power. However, if one cannot find this power, they won't have what it takes to defeat evil. It was one of the reasons why the evil, dark force that fought the heroes was able to defeat him first."_

"Do you know how to unlock its potential then?"

Merlight slowly shook his head. _"Sadly, no. I've never wielded the weapon, nor do I have the knowledge of it. However, I can assure you that this blade will help you on your adventure. If you wish to defeat the Shadow King and Queen, then getting its full power is what you must accomplish."_

"'Adventure'? I'm not going with anyone. I'm getting off of this island." Zanex growled.

_"Hmmmmm... Well, there may be a way to help you get back home..."_ Merlight realized. _"You see, the Land Tablets, if put in the right place, can create a bridge that can go through the barrier and lead you to another land. One of those tablets can lead you straight to Rosslind."_

Hearing the name "Land Tablet" made Zanex remember the Forest Tablet he held with him. He took out the glowing tablet, which caught Merlight's surprise.

_"Yes, that is one of them!"_

"So you're telling me if I find these tablets, I can go back home. Correct?"

_"Yes. That is, if you find the correct one. That means you must help your friends and defeat the evil that is roaming this world. I suspect that Rosslind too is covered in darkness just like Tagel. Yami can help you reach there, but without its true potential being unlocked, it won't be easy."_

Zanex looked down at the Land Tablet and then at his katana. The thought of Rosslind being covered in darkness nearly disturbed him as well. However, he soon remembered what happened when he held the Forest Tablet up high. He let out a sigh as he slowly put the rock away.

"Fine. I guess I have no other choice..." Zanex trailed. "I'll go help those other two, but it's not something I'm going to enjoy."

_"Not all heroes enjoy doing what they are chosen to do,"_ Merlight informed. _"But, by accepting this job, you will be able to bring back peace to this world."_

"Well, all I care about is getting back home, and if these rocks can do the trick, then I better go get more," the hedgehog opened the door and was about to make his exit.

_"By the way..."_ the shaman cut in, stopping Zanex in his place. _"Where did you get Yami? I'm rather curious..."_

Zanex looked at Merlight with an annoyed expression. "I took it from my village so I could go kill off those monsters."

He quickly made his exit, leaving Merlight in the room alone. _"He took it from his village? He didn't sound like it was something difficult..."_

* * *

**Land of the Ancients, beach-**

"Geez... He's not even here!" Nazuchi sighed, who was still searching the beach for Zanex. "Then again, he's fast, and we're just too slow to catch up..."

While he was searching, Chalk was too "busy" laying on the beach and looking at the sunset. "Yeah, you keep doing that."

Nazuchi turned to Chalk with a glare. "You're not even helping..."

"Oh, I am!" Chalk objected. "I'm searching...but I'm doing it while laying like this. It really helps my senses."

"Suuuuuuure... Just get up and help me." Nazuchi suggested, scanning the water for any figure. Before he could get closer to the water, he heard a whirling sound coming from behind. Turning around, he saw Zanex staring down at them over a cliff. "Oh, there he is!"

Zanex jumped down from the cliff and landed softly. Approaching the two, he took out the Forest Tablet and handed it to Nazuchi.

"You came here looking for this, right?" Zanex asked.

"Well... I guess so. But why did you have to run like that?" Nazuchi asked.

"I've discovered a few things that are very important, and after hearing them, I've decided to come with you guys. But let me warn you, Nazuchi and Chalk... Don't get in the way when I'm trying to attack. Let's just say that things might not end well for you..."

"Where were you anyway?" Chalk asked.

"I was...having a little conversation with someone," Zanex answered, looking down at his blade. "He told me that this blade can reach its full potential, and if that's possible, it can help strike down those two demons."

"And that's something you want, right?" Nazuchi wondered.

"I will do that if it'll help me find Rosslind and exterminate the monsters invading there... Anyway, let's just find the next place where the next Land Tablet is."

"Back to the door!" Chalk proclaimed.

* * *

**Door of the Ancients-**

"So... This is the door you were speaking of?" Zanex asked, inspecting the door. It appeared to be very old, but it looked sturdy. He looked behind it and saw nothing. "There's nothing behind this door..."

"The Door of the Ancients is a very special door..." Merlon explained, making his entrance. "They say that behind this door, the legendary being, Battilio, rests."

"Who's Battilio?"

"He is said to be capable of flying great heights, which can reach even the highest of all places in this world. While some say he is but a myth, none had managed to open this door before because of the eight Land Tablets needed. They are the keys to opening this door, and without it, this door is impossible to breach through."

"...You don't even look surprised to see me here, old man," Zanex noticed.

"That's because I knew you wouldn't be leaving us. You did see what happened when you tried to get off this island, right?"

"Yeah. A barrier was in the way."

"Wait, there's a barrier surrounding this island?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Indeed there is," Merlon confirmed. "Ever since the great evil had attacked this place, one of my ancestors put up a barrier to shield this place of any monsters. Though, I do fear that perhaps this barrier may not be able to stop that great evil."

"Say what?"

"Rest assured, heroes. This great evil had occurred many centuries ago. We have not seen it ever since then. I do not believe the Shadow King can do such a thing..."

"Well that's good!" Chalk smiled. "So... Let's get down to business!"

"Right," Nazuchi nodded, pulling out the Forest Tablet. He was ready to place it in the next opening below the Desert Tablet, but he stopped for a moment. "...Maybe Zanex should put this one in."

"Why me?" Zanex gawked.

"Because I think you deserve to put it in. I mean, you decided you wanted to help us, right? Well, then you should get a chance to see what happens!"

"Fine," the hedgehog swiped the Land Tablet from Nazuchi and looked at the door. The other three Land Tablets on the door appeared to be glowing on the door, so he went to the next opening and placed the Land Tablet in its place. "That's it?"

"The Door of the Ancients will show the way, young one," assured Merlon.

"'Door of the Ancients'? That's got to be one of the most unoriginal names I've ever heard for this is-"

He was cut off when he saw a large, green laser fire out from the door and create a glowing green bridge next to the yellow one. Zanex's mouth was nearly agape at the sight.

"What the heck!?"

"Hey, it's green!" Chalk gaped. "It matches your color, Nazoup!"

"Yeah, it sure does," Nazuchi replied with some annoyance in his voice. "So, was it cool, Zanex?"

"I... I..." Zanex stammered. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before..."

"Hmmmmmm... If my indications are correct, the next Land Tablet is in Dreamy Land. I heard there is a large civilization there, including a theme park with many different types of games and even a challenge course that puts your skills to the test." Merlon deduced. "Thankfully, I do not believe those monsters are inhabiting that place, so the Dreamy Tablet should be very easy for you to get!"

"Dreamy!" Chalk smiled.

"A Dreamy Land, huh?" Nazuchi pondered. "Well, this is definitely a different turn than the grass, desert and forest area. Heck, I thought we'd be going to some lava area next!"

"Well, this world is known for having many different types of areas. However, I do suggest being on your guard in search for the Dreamy Tablet. If one of the Shadow King's henchmen got a hold of it, it could turn into chaos..."

"Will do! Come on, guys, let's go!"

Turning to the green bridge, the heroes made a run for it toward the next land that lurked ahead.

_With Zanex finally going along with the heroes after his little discussion, he was prepared to find the next Land Tablet and find his home. The thought of Yami reaching its full power also interested him, yet he had no idea how he could find that power. Both Nazuchi and Chalk noticed him staring at his blade, but they decided that it was nothing special. After all, the next land was just up ahead, and for the first time in a while, they were a bit excited. Little did they know that things would eventually get ugly in Dreamy Land..._

* * *

**Yeah, writing this took longer than it should've taken, but I'm not going to complain. I thought it would be interesting to focus more on Zanex for this interlude than on all three heroes and give him more of a reason to continue this quest. I actually kind of enjoyed writing that.**

**The funny thing is, I was originally planning to make the next area a lava place, but I decided not to, because I don't want to use areas that are kind of generic like I did with the previous three areas. I wanted to...spice things up a bit, and this world should certainly be a treat!**

**Also, there's finally a cover page up! It's not exactly how I wanted it to be, but I don't have too many issues with it. :P**


	24. Becoming Four

Chapter 24: Becoming Four

Making their way to the end of the green bridge, they were astonished with what they saw. The sky was dark, had some stars and a couple of distorted clouds covering some parts of the sky. There was also a rainbow up in the sky as well, along with a couple of floating islands, and on the ground was a field of purple grass with a couple of trees. It was overall a very strange land, but at the same time, very interesting.

"Well, isn't this a little treat for us?" Nazuchi smiled. "It's not often that I get to see placed like this! It's pretty cool!"

"I think the right word is 'dreamy'," Chalk corrected.

"Don't overuse that phrase, or else I'm turning back," Zanex threatened, making Chalk quiet down. "I can see something up ahead... It looks like...some kind of park?"

Nazuchi and Chalk took a look as well and could see some bright lights coming from the distance, along with a couple of cheers. They found it obvious that they weren't alone in this area.

Unfortunately, their peaceful time was interrupted by a dark ball of energy that nearly hit the three. The blast pushed them back slightly, and while all of that happened, they heard a screeching cackle.

"Screeyee! I have vaited for you Chosen Vuns!"

They looked up and saw what could be described as a purple, dracula-esque wannabe with a purple cape, a bow-tie resembling a bat, yellow eyes, black claws and grin sporting three fangs on the top, and two on the bottom.

"Whoa... Who the heck is this guy?" Chalk gawked. "Hold on... I think he's the muffin man!"

"Yes... I know you are the Chosen Vuns! There's only three here, vhich must mean that vun of you is..."

"OK, can you just tell us who the heck you are?!" Nazuchi exclaimed, aiming a light arrow at the dark being. "You just tried to attack us, and now you're speaking like some kind of dracula wannabe?"

"Forget it, Nazuchi. He's an enemy, and I know just what to do with an enemy." Zanex drew his blade and leapt in the air to attack, but the dracula wannabe caught the blade with ease, leaving Zanex hanging. Even he was a bit surprised.

Grinning, he threw Zanex back onto the ground and cackled. "Foolish Chosen Vuns! If you think you haff the power to stop me, think again! When I am in the real vorld, people fear me! You people vill be no less! However, you vill be of good use – at least one of you vill-"

"OK, that's it," Nazuchi fired the arrow immediately and let it fly toward the dracula wannabe. He held his claw in front of him and put up a dark barrier that blocked the attack.

"You all lack the patience! Fine! I vill just do this now!"

Two balls of purple energy appeared in his hands, and after they grew bigger, he hurled them directly at Nazuchi. However, just before they could hit them, the two balls faded away, and the dracula wannabe soon found himself fading as well.

"Vat?! Not so soon!"

The three heroes stared at him in confusion as he faded away from existence, leaving only sparkles behind in the process.

"OK... That was weird..." Chalk trailed. "Who the heck was he?"

"I don't know, but it looks like we've got a serious threat here," Nazuchi pondered. "But I wonder what he was trying to say to us..."

"Who cares? He's out of the way. Let's just head over to that park." suggested Zanex, who sheathed his katana and decided to make his way toward the park.

Unfortunately, getting there wasn't exactly going to be easy, which was proven when they passed by a tree. A couple of strange creatures ranging from blue, red and yellow jumped out of the tree and surprised them. The blue one, known as a Chill, appeared to have yellow eyes, large ears, a buck tooth, white gloves and tan shoes. The red one, which was a Fever, had small ears and horns, yellow eyes, a hole resembling a nose, a tail, two teeth, an orange tongue sticking out and white gloves and tan shoes. The yellow one, the Weird, had large horns, including ones on its arms, orange eyes, white gloves and tan shoes. Compared to the other two, its mouth wasn't wide open.

"Hey, aren't those Viruses?" Nazuchi gawked. "I think it's a Chill, Fever, and Weird."

"A Weird?" Chalk gawked.

"Yeah... Dumb name, I know. The Chill can give colds, the Fever can burn you, and I think the Weird can morph you into different shapes or other things..."

To their shock, a couple more Viruses appeared behind the tree and began to circle around the three. There was about sixteen of them, and they all looked eager to attack them.

Zanex smacked about three Chills away, causing them to fall on top of each other and instantly get destroyed in the process. He raised an eyebrow for a moment and decided to kick three Weirds into another pile. They, too, ended up perishing.

"So... If we get at least three of the same color together, they'll end up getting destroyed." Zanex deduced.

Nazuchi shot an arrow at a Weird, and to his surprise, he saw it turn into a Fever. Chalk even painted another Fever blue, and it ended up turning into a Chill. They appeared confused, but they soon got the idea of what would happen and began to knock Viruses of the same color into some piles to destroy them.

Only two Viruses remained, and soon they were annihilated by one of Nazuchi's bombs, clearing the way and allowing them to proceed onward.

They had noticed some small clouds leading up to some of the small, floating islands. By jumping on one of them, they found themselves bouncing off it like a trampoline. This helped them reach the island, where a chest happened to reveal a Thunder Rage.

"Huh... Well, this should come in handy." Nazuchi said, putting the item away. "Anyway, let's get back on the ground."

Nazuchi, Chalk and Zanex made their way back onto the ground and continued their way toward the park. The only thing they had run into were some Viruses, but thankfully there were less around, allowing them to plow through them with ease. They found a green bean enemy with a grin and black feet called a Beanie, which they found defeating very easy.

When they saw that the park was just a couple of yards away, the three heroes found themselves sprinting past a couple of Beanies and Viruses that tried to get in their way. Those that tried to jump them were easy knocked away with a single swing from their weapons.

In no time, they were at the front entrance of the park.

"For once, we're not too far from a specific area," Nazuchi remarked. "Most of the time we would have to travel some distances to reach a specific area..."

The gate was labeled "Slumber Park", with the words glowing purple and pink. A brown, oval-shaped person with large, black eyes and a black mouth was at the gate and was wearing a green party hat. He was also wearing a green, leafy skirt.

"Hoo, what's this? Some more people?" the Hooski gaped. "I bet you hoos are here for the Dream Games, right?"

"Dream Games?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Hoo yeah! Hoos compete in a little game and whoever hoos the entire contest wins a prize. I think Beanbag has two hoos depending on the game. Those prizes... Hoo boy! They look amazing! A red, crystal star and an ancient relic! Many hoos are trying to compete!"

"Hey, that sounds like something we need!" Chalk exclaimed. "Let's go trash the competition and get them!"

"Well if you hoos are going to compete, then you gotta hoo over all your coins," the Hooski informed, making nearly everyone gape. Well, except for one.

"We can take it!" the puffball proclaimed. "Nazubo, give him our money!"

"...Actually, I was just hooing with you. It's free."

"Then let's just go already," Zanex suggested, entering through the gate. The other two soon followed, leaving the Hooski behind.

"Wait! You need four hoos in your group if you plan on signing up!"

Unfortunately, they didn't appear to hear him, forcing him to sulk back at his stand.

The three heroes found themselves disappointed when they entered the park. No ferris wheels, roller coasters, no nothing! The only type of rides there were some spinning dream clouds, and even then they were not interested. There was at least one cotton candy stand too.

"Seriously? This is it?" Chalk gaped. "So much for this being a park! There's not a thing to go on – well except for that cloud ride, but that appears to be pointless!"

"The budget was probably not good enough, so this is what they could afford. Pretty pathetic if you ask me." Zanex scoffed. He looked off in the distance in the park and noticed what appeared to be some kind of purple castle. "Wait... A castle? Here?"

"Sounds like the noise is coming from in there," Nazuchi deduced. "Let's check it out!"

They headed through the front entrance and found themselves in the purple lobby. There was a long, red rug leading to a doorway straight ahead, but there were also two doorways to the left and right. Some beanish species that looked more humanish than the Beanies were in the lobby, along with some Hooskis and yellow block people with a block head and block body called Brocks.

Apparently the right doorway was leading to a little shop, and up ahead appeared to be another hallway with a door dead ahead and a staircase to their right. The heroes ignored the stairs and went to the big door resembling a dreamy cloud. Through that door was a giant gymnasium, but it didn't appear to be that crowded. In fact, the only ones there were four familiar faces and a short, beanish character wearing a black hat and a gray hoodie.

"The Dream Games will begin tomorrow at approximately noon," the beanish character informed. "So in the meantime, enjoy your time in Slumber Castle! You will be provided with your own room and luxury!"

"Heh... This'll be perfect!" Toadburt grinned. "We'll get that Crystal Star for sure with the four of us! Obviously there's no one that can get in our way!"

"Well, obviously we have to come up with a team name," Goombi noted. "That is something you want, right, Beanbag?"

"Absolutely," Beanbag nodded. "We always try to encourage people to get drawn into the Dream Games. That's why having a team name is always important."

"If that's the case, then we should just call ourselves the Four Heroes," Bonnie suggested.

"I was thinking of 'Toadburt, the Mighty Cool Hero'," Toadburt mentioned. "...But, just this once, I think I'll let this be an exception."

"Now, there are a couple of rules to the Dream Games," Beanbag started. "When there are fighting competitions, we greatly discourage trying to let death occur. So, don't kill anyone, or else you're disqualified. For other challenges, like races, you must all complete the task in order to win. Do you get that?"

"Yeah, yeah. We've got it covered!" the Toad assured, stretching his arms as he drew his sword. "Everyone will be begging for mercy when I use my sword on them!"

"Toadburt, making people beg for mercy is not in our code," Koopo informed. "In fact, we try our best not to harm people - only those with pure evil in their heart, like the Shadow Queen."

"...Oh, good point," Toadburt whirled around with a smug look on his face, but his smugness faded when he saw three Chosen Ones standing before him. "Wait... These losers are here too?"

Nazuchi ignored Toadburt and approached the stand where Beanbag was. "Well hello there, stranger! So you've come to sign up for the Dream Games too, correct?"

"Yeah, we are," Nazuchi nodded as Chalk and Zanex walked over to him. "Us three are going to compete!"

"Ooh... Sorry, stranger... I would love to sign you guys up, but you can't participate in the Dream Games unless you have a group of four."

"...What?" the blonde boy gaped. "Four?!"

"Yeah, you see... Many people came here in groups of four to sign up, so I decided to allow four people to join a group. Sorry about that..."

Now it was Zanex's turn to speak up. "Look, it doesn't matter if there is just three of us. There's something you probably have that we need. And if it falls in the wrong hands, this place is doomed."

"You mean that ancient relic I found?" Beanbag took out the Dreamy Tablet and showed it to the three. "Yeah, this is something pretty nice. I plan on giving it away to the ones who manage to win the Dream Games. So, if you want this..." he slowly put it away. "You're going to have to find a fourth person and earn this."

"Ugh... Fine." Nazuchi groaned, turning away from the stand and walking back to the door.

"YEAH!" Toadburt fist pumped, only to receive a glare from his comrades. "I mean... I'm sorry to hear about that."

"Well this stinks," Chalk pouted. "That Beanbag guy won't let us sign up!"

"I say we should just steal the Land Tablet from him," Zanex suggested, returning to the hallway with the other two. "It'd be pointless to just compete in these Dream Games. That, and that Crystal Star thing."

"Steal it? That's not the right thing to do." Nazuchi scolded. "We're good guys, you know! I don't want this to be just like what we did in... Actually, forget that. I think it would be fair for us to just compete in the Dream Games. You never know... Something good might come out of it!"

"But what about another fourth member?" Chalk mentioned. "We still have to find another person to join us! Maybe we should just get some random guy to join us!"

"Errr... Just getting some random person to help us isn't necessarily the best thing to do. Like Beanbag said, to win some competitions, we would all have to complete the task. We'd need someone who could really help us..."

"Thank you for telling the obvious," Zanex groaned. "We should just search this castle for anyone helpful. Someone who probably stands up among the crowd..."

Nazuchi decided not to argue with him and walked back into the lobby. They knew there was a shop to the right, but they hadn't checked the doorway to the left, so they did that. Surprisingly, they were in a large room filled with medical beds and lockers containing different types of medicines. There didn't appear to be anyone around, though.

"I wonder who was stupid enough to leave these here?" Chalk scoffed, walking up to a jar full of antibiotics on a table. "They can easily be stolen!"

He grabbed the jar, only to feel a shock, forcing him to drop the jar. Thankfully, the jar did not break. Chalk was about to question this, but he noticed a sign that said, "For Dream Game competitors only. Others will receive a nasty shock."

"Huh... Well that's interesting." Nazuchi mused. "Anyway, I don't think there's anything interesting here..."

"Except for that pipe," Zanex said, pointing to a purple pipe sticking out over by the right corner. "It appears to be blocked by a cork, though."

Chalk smiled and ran up to the cork. Using red paint, he tried to burn it off, but it didn't appear to do much. However, Nazuchi's Sword of Light was able to destroy it with a single slice.

"Let's see where this leads," Nazuchi suggested, entering the pipe. Chalk and Zanex soon followed afterward.

* * *

**Beneath Dream Castle-**

When the three had come out of the pipe, they found themselves in a room with gray, stone tiles on the floor and a purple rugged path leading to a door with a symbol of a Z on it. There were at least four torches, with each on the four corners.

"Huh... You wouldn't expect something like this to be under a castle," Nazuchi remarked.

"It doesn't look that old, especially compared to that one underground area..." Zanex muttered.

"Other underground area? What the heck are you talking about?" Chalk gawked.

"Forget it," Zanex waved his hand as if to end the discussion. "Let's just check this place out. If this is some kind of secret, there may be something hidden here that can help us."

Nazuchi agreed and decided to progress over to the door. However, before he could even enter, the flames around the room became purple, and two, small dark purple rock creatures with purple eyes emerged and appeared in front of the blonde boy. They appeared to be spirit balls called Smoldergeists.

"None shall enter the sacred castle of the dreams!" one of the Smoldergeists roared.

"And none shall get in my way!" Chalk declared, painting one of them red. Unfortunately, the flames only made them stronger, which was enough for one to spit a fireball that sent Chalk flying to the wall.

"Chalk, don't use fire on these guys! That's only going to make them stronger!" Nazuchi yelled, avoiding another fireball another Smoldergeist shot at him. His sword changed from light to ice as he swung at one of them, causing their flames to disappear. That's when Zanex destroyed it with a Homing Attack.

"These things are way too weak without their flames," Zanex remarked. "Just take out its flames, then it'll be easy to defeat."

Chalk had gotten himself off the wall and split his paintbrush into his paint guns. He fired blue paintballs at the remaining Smoldergeist to extinguish its flames, and then Nazuchi finished it off with his sword.

"Those were some strange monsters... I wonder what they were doing here..." Nazuchi pondered.

"Maybe they guard this place!" Chalk deduced, forming his two paint brushes back into one.

"Well, we'll find out ourselves," Zanex said, approaching the now opened door. "Looks like those things were guarding the door..."

They headed through the door and found a short pathway leading up to a gap between them and another door. There was a small staircase next to them with at least three Viruses. The door up ahead was once again, blocked.

But what they didn't expect to be here was a large chasm on both sides of the tiled pathway. There was also a waterfall to their right far in the background. From what they could deduce, this place was huge, and falling was certainly not a good idea.

Thankfully, the jump wasn't anything hard, as they were easily capable of jumping over the gap. Even if they did fall, it was pretty simple to get back up. However, no Smoldergeists appeared upon approaching the door.

"Looks like this one is a bit trickier to solve..." Nazuchi trailed, pondering for a moment. "Now how could we get this door open?"

Zanex looked off in the distance and noticed a Smoldergeist floating near one of the waterfalls. He grabbed Nazuchi's attention by tapping his shoulder and then pointing at the Smoldergeist. Getting the idea, Nazuchi aimed an ice arrow and let the fast projectile strike the spirit ball and destroy it, opening the door.

Compared to the other rooms, this one was much larger and sported two doors to the left wall and two others to the right. Four pillars appeared to be holding the ceiling up, though they didn't seem too sturdy. A purple rug was leading up to a small staircase where another sealed door was. The other four doors, however, did not appear to be sealed.

Four Smoldergeists appeared in the room as well, and upon spotting the three, they instantly flew out of the room. Each of them went their separate way through one of the doorways.

"Great... They got away." Zanex grumbled. "Looks like we have to chase them. I'd rather split up at this point."

"No, I say we stick together," Nazuchi objected. "Things work much better for us when we stick together, OK?"

Zanex groaned, but he chose not to object Nazuchi's choice. They decided to take the closer doorway to the left and were led into a room with a long, narrow walkway with at least three empty blocks floating beside the walkway. On those blocks were Firebars that were moving at a moderate pace.

"Be careful not to fall," Chalk informed, pointing down to the chasm below.

"Thanks for telling, Captain Obvious," Zanex deadpanned, running across the narrow walkway first. He appeared to be the least concerned, as his speed was able to reach the end of the walkway without the Firebars touching him. Nazuchi and Chalk had more of a challenge, but they were able to jump over the fire before it could touch them and reach the other side.

There was a door right in front of them, along with a staircase. Taking the stairs up led them to a chest containing Magic Powder. Zanex had no idea what it was, but after an explanation from Nazuchi, he considered keeping it.

Going back to the door, they were led to another room with a walkway leading to a circular section where a Smoldergeist was waiting, or rather stuck. Zanex decided to swiftly sheath Yami to create a slicing orb to attack the Smoldergeist, but it didn't appear to be too effective.

"Wait... What? How is that not working?" Zanex stared at his blade before gritting his teeth. "This weapon is supposed to slice into _anything_!"

"Where did you hear that?" Nazuchi asked.

"That's what I was told, but I guess that's not the case."

Nazuchi fired an ice arrow at his intended target, but the Smoldergeist saw it coming and flew out of the way to avoid it. He gawked for a moment before getting hit by a purple fireball.

The Smoldergeist then turned its attention to Chalk and charged at him. Since he saw it coming, his blue paint managed to get rid of its flames, and with a single bash from his paintbrush, it was destroyed.

"That takes care of that!" Chalk proclaimed. "Only three more to go!"

"Well, let's go back to that large room," Nazuchi suggested, making his way out of the room. His comrades followed him back into the large room, where they noticed a small, purple flame over the doorway they came out of. "Well... I guess that's something interesting..."

They decided to go into the upper left doorway next, which led them into a room with a walkway leading to a circular platform with four, long Firebars spinning around. It was also moving at a moderate pace too.

Unfortunately, reaching the other side only led to a dead end. There was no staircase or any other secrets around except for the dead end looking a bit different to the rest of the wall. This instantly gave Chalk an idea and made him paint the wall, which revealed a doorway underneath.

Chalk smiled proudly as he followed his allies through the doorway and into the next room. They noticed they were standing right in front of a chasm below, and up ahead was a small staircase leading to a painting of a Smoldergeist.

"Hmmmmm... Well, looks like we need to find a way through here." Nazuchi deduced, slowly turning to Chalk. "Think you can help us, Chalk?"

"That I can!" Chalk declared, splitting his paintbrush into two and firing paintballs around the chasm. Sadly, there didn't appear to be any hidden platforms. "Oh... No platforms."

"Then... How about you hit the painting?"

Chalk nodded and began to fire at the painting with clear paintballs. This caused the painting to disappear, forcing the Smoldergeist to come out. Nazuchi fired an ice arrow at it, destroying it, and then Chalk put his paintbrush back together.

"Only two more left," Nazuchi said, making his way back to the large room with his friends. This time, they went over to the lower right door into a room with a circular platform up ahead with a blue and red panel on the ground. Stepping on the blue one, they found out the platform was going up.

Of course, some enemies had to land on the platform to distract them. Two Beanies were about to charge, but one kick from Zanex knocked it off the platform. Chalk poisoned the other with green paint and then destroyed it with one smack from his brush.

"That takes care of that!" Chalk declared.

"Just in time," Nazuchi said, seeing the next doorway slightly above. They quickly entered through the doorway into a room with a large conveyer belt leading to a small platform where a Smoldergeist was floating around. Nazuchi was the first to go onto the conveyer belt, but it was too fast for him and caused him to trip and fall.

"Ow..."

"I guess you're just too slow," Chalk said, running onto the conveyer belt, but he too tripped and fell. "...OK, I'm a little too slow!"

"I'll handle this," assured Zanex, running across the conveyer belt with little to no effort. A couple of bullet bills in the background were firing, but he easily jumped over them. When he had reached the Smoldergeist, he drew Yami and sliced at it, only to remember his blade wasn't too effective when on fire. Groaning, he looked over at Nazuchi and gestured him to fire an arrow.

Nazuchi gave him a nod and fired an ice arrow, eliminating the Smoldergeist and making Zanex's run to the other side rather pointless.

Zanex had returned to the two and said, "I guess one more remains."

"Looks like it. Let's head back to the main room." suggested Nazuchi as they went back to the main room by using the red panel on the platform rather than the blue one. When they returned to the large room, they went to the final door to the upper right, where they found another chasm, but with a large spring of water shooting upward from a fountain that happened to be down below. In fact, there were more springs of water leading up to a doorway up ahead, but there were also two more springs to the right of the center one going to another doorway.

"Fountains? Cool!" Chalk smiled, leaping onto each spring to reach the doorway dead ahead. Nazuchi shrugged and performed the same act, finishing his last jump with a little flip. For Zanex, it only took about three seconds to get across.

Unfortunately, they didn't find any Smoldergeist in the next room. In fact, all they could find was a group of Viruses dancing in a circle. They didn't seem to pay much attention to the three, though.

However, when they had approached the center of the room, the Viruses caught their attention and began to charge at them. Nazuchi punched the ground, creating a small crater and a large gust of wind that sent the Viruses flying into the abyss surrounding them.

"Man, it's been a while since I used that," Nazuchi smiled, looking at his gauntlets. Meanwhile, a chest had appeared, revealing an Ultra Shroom and fifty coins to be inside. He decided to hold onto it himself.

Going back to the previous room, they took the springs over to the right into a room with springs leading higher up into the room. A Smoldergeist was standing on a lone platform the heroes managed to get onto, and soon it had been destroyed by Chalk's blue paint.

As the Smoldergeist was destroyed, they felt a faint tremor.

"Looks like that came from that door," Zanex deduced. "We should check it out."

They had made their return to the large room and saw that the door up the staircase was now open. A feeling of satisfaction had emerged from the heroes as they made their up through the doorway into a small room with torches on the four corners, along with a ladder going deeper underground.

"Hmmmmm... Well, might as well go deeper." Nazuchi decided, climbing down the ladder first. Chalk followed next, and then Zanex climbed down afterward, curious as to see what lied ahead.

* * *

**Deeper beneath the castle-**

"Great... Just great." Yorishi groaned, standing in a large, square-shaped room with a large tombstone nearby. "I can't believe I lost that bounty hunter! She was right here a moment ago! If the queen found out I lost her, she is certainly not going to be happy..."

He had his crossbow ready and loaded just to find his target that had recently escaped. Though the idea of bringing her down here was good, losing her was also very bad for him.

However, what did catch his attention was the tombstone nearby. He hadn't paid much attention to it, but getting a closer look at it made him raise an eyebrow. There was, in fact, a statue of a monster of some dracula wannabe above the tombstone. His appearance interested Yorishi, but it didn't look as imposing as his leader. Looking down, he saw a large name labeled on the top of the tombstone.

"Antasma? What kind of name is that?"

Before he could read any further, he heard the sound of climbing nearby. This made his eyes widen in surprise. _"People? Here? ...Or could it be that bounty hunter?"_

Looking around the room, he decided to hide behind the tombstone.

* * *

**Bottom of the ladder-**

When the three climbed to the bottom of the ladder, they found more torches, but the rug had also changed from a lighter purple to a darker one. There were even some depictions of pillows on them as well.

"Well, looks like we're getting deeper," Nazuchi deduced, approaching the doorway ahead. "Doesn't look like there are any enemies around, though."

"Then we're safe!" Chalk declared proudly. "Let's go!"

The three ran to the doorway ahead into a long hallway leading up to another doorway. There was a chest near that doorway, and nearby was another hallway leading to another doorway, but it was unfortunately blocked by some rubble. No going that way, that's for sure.

When the heroes approached the chest, they found some food inside, which pleased them, as they had taken some damage beforehand. Now fully healed, Nazuchi, Chalk and Zanex entered the doorway into a square-shaped room with a tombstone dead ahead.

"Huh... It doesn't look like there's anything else here." Nazuchi noticed. "No hallway either. It just...ends."

"Well, except for that tombstone over there," Zanex pointed out, eyeing the tombstone ahead. The other two took notice as well and walked over to it. The first thing that caught their attention was the figure above the tombstone. "Wait... Didn't we see this guy before?"

"Yeah, we did! It says here this guy was Antasma." Nazuchi began to read the text that was underneath the name and was pleasantly surprised. "It says here that thousands of years ago, he was a bat king that stole something called a Dark Stone. An ancient race called Pi'illos were at war with this guy and managed to seal him in a place called the Dream World..."

"There's more here," Chalk noticed. "Hey, it says he shattered that Dark Whatchamacallit and made chunks of it rain down on those freaky pillow things and turn them into stone. They must've been pretty dumb if they were turned into that easily!"

"But this stone says this Antasma was imprisoned... If that's the case, how in the world did he appear before us? This makes no sense at all!"

Before they could think any further, they heard the sound of a shot firing nearby. Nazuchi had sensed the shot and quickly whirled his sword to the projectile that had tried to hit him. It was revealed to be a laser-like arrow resembling Nazuchi's arrows, only darker. It ended up getting deflected into one of the walls, creating a hole.

"What was that?" Chalk gawked.

"I recognize that shot..." Nazuchi trailed, holding his sword in front of him. "Come out and show yourself!"

The figure indeed showed himself behind the tombstone with his crossbow ready. "Well, if it isn't my good friend Nazuchi! It's been quite a while, hasn't it?"

"Hey, it's that weirdo we saw back at that sand castle!" Chalk chirped.

"'Weirdo'? You're one to talk, you round...puffball thingy." Yorishi scoffed before turning to Nazuchi. "So, you've gotten a hold of four of the Land Tablets so far... I gotta say, I'm a little impressed. Considering that I managed to beat you back at the Grass Land, you sure did step up your game. Of course, I've done the same thing."

"Look, I don't know who you are, but if you're going to get in our way, just beat it," Zanex said coldly. "We don't have time for this."

Yorishi had brought his attention to Zanex and looked at him with surprise. "Another one joined you? Great... I guess there's more than just two Chosen Ones! ...On the other hand, I consider this a good opportunity!"

"What do you mean?" Nazuchi gawked.

"You see, I was tasked by the Shadow Queen to eliminate those Four Heroes and you guys. Since you're already here, I think I might as well do my job and take you guys down!"

"Fine, if you want a fight, then we'll give you one," Nazuchi accepted, readying his sword. "I was wondering when I'd be able to fight you again, and now is the perfect opportunity!"

"All right then... Come on!" Yorishi challenged, firing another arrow at their direction. Nazuchi deflected it back at Yorishi, who ducked and watched the arrow hit the wall again. He quickly whirled around and saw Nazuchi swinging at him. He took out his blade the Shadow Queen gave him and blocked the attack.

"Nice try, Nazuchi, but I've been trained for situations like this!"

Yorishi managed to successfully push Nazuchi off him and was prepared to swing his blade until he saw a gray puffball smear him with yellow paint. He was about to attack Chalk until he found himself incapable of moving.

"Ha! You can't move!" Chalk taunted.

Yorishi tried to fight off the paralysis, but he was not doing a very good job at it. This gave Nazuchi the opportunity to strike him with his sword. Yorishi cringed in pain, and was surprisingly no longer paralyzed at this point.

"Urgh... Well, your weapon does appear to be stronger... But my weapon was given to me by the queen!" Yorishi cackled, holding his blade proudly. "This blade will end all of you!"

"We'll see about that," Nazuchi smirked, knocking him back with a kick. Yorishi tried to shake off the kick, only to get struck by Zanex's katana. He grumbled in frustration and tried to fight off Zanex, but then Chalk attacked him in the back with red paint. Yorishi got even more frustrated and tried to fend them off, but was not doing a very good job at it.

"Man, you stink at fighting if you can't take us all on!" Chalk taunted.

"No... I will not be beaten like this!" Yorishi roared, striking the ground with his blade and causing a dark pulse to spread out and knock the three into the walls. Now at a far range, Yorishi got his crossbow ready and started to fire at Zanex.

Seeing the attack coming, Zanex spun his katana and blocked each shot, making them disappear in the process. Yorishi gawked, but continued to fire, despite each shot getting blocked.

Since he was distracted with Zanex, Nazuchi took a bomb out and rolled it under Yorishi so he wouldn't see it coming. However, he was able to hear the sound of something sizzling.

"Hey... What's that sound?" Yorishi looked down and saw the lit up bomb. He yelped for a moment before kicking it back at Nazuchi. It exploded, leaving the blonde boy covered in soot. "Heh heh... Well that was pretty easy!"

He heard the sound of a battle cry and saw Chalk charging directly at him. Smirking, Yorishi jumped, allowing the puffball to miss and trip. When he landed, he kicked Chalk away from him and back to the wall.

Yorishi turned back to Nazuchi and swung his sword. A crescent-shaped wave of dark energy fired directly at him. He saw it coming and fired a wave similarly to Yorishi's only this one was light. Both collided and let off an explosion of light and darkness.

This was another opportunity for Yorishi to strike, so he aimed his crossbow in the direction Nazuchi was and fired. Another explosion had emitted. He was confused at first, but he shrugged it off and continued firing. More explosions.

"I don't understand... How in the world are my shots missing?!" Yorishi gaped, lowering his crossbow. "No... There's no way he could be dodg—"

He managed to duck just in time when a light arrow had come his way. Yorishi watched as the projectile had barely managed to strike his helmet. He thought for a moment he saw Nazuchi smirking.

When Yorishi stood up, he elbowed behind him and managed to knock back Zanex. "Nice try, Nazuchi, but I've seen that trick before. It's not going to work on me now."

Zanex let out a small grunt before trying to smack Yorishi with his scabbard. He simply jumped to avoid it and kicked him in the face to knock him onto the floor. While he did that, he turned to Nazuchi and blocked his sword coming his way.

"Geez... You weren't like this when I first faced you!" Nazuchi gaped.

"Well, you weren't all attacking me at once. I didn't have to do that." Yorishi smirked under his helmet. "What? You thought you would be a lot stronger than me? I was TRAINED for situations like this! Probably something that masked freak didn't teach you!"

Now Nazuchi was getting infuriated. "Don't you DARE call my mentor a freak!

He charged at him and swung at Yorishi. Surprisingly, he managed to deal some decent damage to the bounty hunter, as he was wincing in pain. Yorishi growled under his helmet and managed to hit Nazuchi with his own sword. When he made another hit, Nazuchi blocked it this time.

"You're going to pay for doing that to me," Yorishi hissed.

"You were asking for it," Nazuchi retorted.

"I see... Well, looks like I have to step this up a bit!" Yorishi got his crossbow ready and aimed around him and the other two. "I won't miss when I'm done with this move!"

"Try it, then," Zanex taunted.

Yorishi smirked and began to spin around like a tornado. Suddenly, many shots began to shoot out from his crossbow and fired everywhere. Zanex realized that blocking it was too risky and hid behind the statue of Antasma, along with the other two.

"Geez... This is nuts!" Chalk exclaimed.

"We need to find a way to stop this," Nazuchi suggested.

"Got any ideas then?" Zanex asked.

"Well... No... But with some time, I think we'll have our chance to-"

An explosion could be heard from behind the statue, catching the three's attention. They took a look behind the statue and noticed Yorishi was not firing. In fact, he was a bit surprised.

"That missile... I know who it belongs to..." Yorishi quickly looked up at a broken pillar and saw a figure in a gray Power Suit. "_**You!**_"

"Miss me?" Mars smirked, jumping down from the pillar. "You're not exactly the smartest one for leaving me off on my own while I was unconscious. So... Wanna taste some of my missiles? Or how about a Power Beam? Charged shot?"

Yorishi ignored her and began to fire shots at her. Smirking, she fired a couple of shots that not only destroyed them, but ended up going through them, allowing the projectiles to hit Yorishi.

"Argh! You annoying bounty hunter! Who are you to do this to the greatest bounty hunter in the world?!"

"Greatest? If that's the case, you're probably number two."

"Number..._two?!_"

He charged at Mars and tried to swing at her, but she simply stepped aside and let him crash into the wall. The three heroes had gotten a glimpse of this mysterious person and were surprised.

"Whoa... He's owning him!" Nazuchi gaped.

"Should we go help?" Chalk asked.

"It's hard to determine if he's a friend or a foe..." Zanex trailed. "But there's only one way to find out!"

When Yorishi had gotten up, he gave Mars a glare and charged at her once again. However, before he could reach her, Zanex had jumped in and knocked him on the floor with a kick. Mars was surprised when she caught a glimpse of the hedgehog.

"Wait a sec... I think I saw you from somewhere..." Mars trailed. "Yeah, you're that hedgehog."

"What the heck are you talking about?" Zanex asked annoyingly.

"Outside of this one town, you were running from it. I was considering going after you to ask a few questions regarding this place, but I was too late."

"Hey, what's going on?" Chalk asked, showing himself. Seeing him go over to the bounty hunter, Nazuchi decided to go over as well.

"Whoa... There's more people here too?" Mars gawked. "Well, this isn't good... Unless you're the good guys."

"We are," Nazuchi assured.

Before they could talk any further, they saw Yorishi get up and aim his crossbow. However, when he saw Nazuchi aiming his bow, Chalk pointing his paintbrush, Zanex reaching for his blade and Mars aiming her Arm Cannon, he knew he was in for some trouble.

"...Fine, I'm done with you guys," Yorishi stated, realizing he could not outmatch the four. "I wish this fight could've gone on a lot longer, but that bounty hunter just had to step in and try to ruin it for me!"

"Giving up already? What a disappointment..." Mars scoffed. "But hey! Come back another time, and maybe I can teach you about how my Arm Cannon blasts monsters like you!"

"You listen here, Nazuchi... I'm not through with you yet. If it weren't for that bounty hunter, you and your friends would be history! I guess I just need to improve my weapons a bit until I am tough enough to eliminate you! For now, farewell!"

Pressing a button on his wrist, Yorishi had teleported out of the vicinity.

"Well, at least that's out of the way," Nazuchi sighed, turning to Mars. "You know, if it weren't for you, we'd probably be finished."

"Eliminating monsters is part of the job," Mars assured. "So, I take it you guys are part of this world. Let me start with an introduction: I'm Mars, a bounty hunter who has come here to eliminate these dark monsters lurking around this world. I'm not in it just for the pay. I'm doing this 'cause I enjoy blasting monsters!"

"Wow, that's pretty cool for a guy like you!"

Mars froze. "...Are you serious?"

"Nazoup's always serious!" Chalk proclaimed proudly.

Mars face palmed and removed her helmet, revealing her female face. Nazuchi and Chalk's eyes widened in shock.

"Whoa... You're a girl?!" Nazuchi exclaimed.

"Yeah, I am," Mars answered, putting her helmet back on. "Look, I'm not too offended by it. I've gotten used to it."

"OK..." Before Nazuchi could ponder, something struck his mind. "...Oh! I remember something!"

"What?" Chalk gawked.

"The Dream Games requires four people to enter, and with Mars here, maybe we can enter the contest!"

"...Oh, yeah! She packed a punch, so she might be useful!"

"Dream Games? What the heck are you guys talking about?" Mars asked.

"OK... This might require a little bit of explaining." Nazuchi sighed. "Let's focus on getting out of here first, then we'll explain everything to you."

"We could do that, but we have a problem," Zanex pointed out. "Some rubble is in the way, and there's no way we're getting through that."

"Rubble? Show me." Mars demanded.

The three had gone back to where the other pathway blocked by rubble was. Nazuchi was about to point it to her, but it had already been destroyed by a missile.

"Done," the bounty hunter declared.

"That was fast!" Chalk smiled stupidly. "Let's get outta here!"

The path had ended up leading them to a pipe, which just so happened to lead back to the medical room. Wasting no time at all, the four had proceeded into the pipe, with Mars looking confused upon entering.

_"What ever they have to explain, it must be something big..."_

* * *

**Yeesh... When was the last time I updated this? *shot***

**I think one of the reasons why I like this place is probably because rather than just traveling to a specific place, the heroes are already at their destination, but they have to do a little something in order to get the Land Tablet. The Dream Games is basically inspired by the Glitz Pit, except it doesn't only focus on combat.**

**...And are my eyes spotting a new member joining the heroes? :P**

**Also, expect some things from the recent Mario and Luigi: Dream Team to appear. ...But, thankfully, none of the stuff I'm putting in here are spoilers. Some of the ideas are a bit new!**


	25. Let the Dream Games Begin!

**IMPORTANT: As of this chapter, a couple of chapters have been revamped. If you've been following this story since the beginning, then maybe you should go check out what's been changed.**

* * *

Chapter 25: Let the Dream Games Begin!

When the group had finally left the underground area, they had decided to take a little breather in the medical room. As they relaxed, Nazuchi had began to explain to Mars the events that were going on, and the reason for being here. Chalk, meanwhile, was playing around with his paintbrush, and Zanex sat down on one of the beds while inspecting his weapon with a bored expression.

"OK, so let me get this straight..." Mars began. "Some evil demons have taken over many lands in this world, and you're trying to collect these Land Tablets in order to not only restore them back to normal, but open a door to find some legendary being called Battilio that will hopefully help you?"

"Yeah, that's it," Nazuchi nodded. "So far, we've only got four Land Tablets so far, so the fifth one is located here. It's supposed to be a prize, but to enter the competition, you need four people."

"Really? Interesting... Well, count me in."

"Already?"

"Sure," Mars nodded. "I mean, you guys are out to destroy those dark monsters, and you're trying to restore the world back to normal. Since we both have common goals, why not work together?"

"You sure about that?" Nazuchi wondered.

"Yeah. Besides, you need four people for these Dream Games, right? I might as well give you a hand! I am an expert at blasting things, after all!"

"Well... All right! Welcome to the team, then!"

Smirking, Mars had raised her Arm Cannon in satisfaction.

_**Name: Mars Ranes**_

_**Info: Mars is a bounty hunter who lives on the planet Tallon IV, and thanks to the specialized training she received, she is very flexible and athletic, whether she is in her suit or not. **_

_**Items: Power Suit – This suit helps protect Mars from dangerous enemies, and it also keeps her safe from atmospheric conditions on other planets. Arm Cannon – This weapon attached to her arm has a limitless supply of shots, and it even has the power to fire missiles. However, those are limited, and it requires her to recharge them, which can leave her easily open for an attack.**_

"Well, let's go see Beanbag and sign up for the Dream Games!" Nazuchi smiled, rushing out of the medical room. The others followed behind until they had reached the desk Beanbag was at. He had noticed them slow down and take a pant (save for Zanex).

"You guys again? Look, I told you, you can't sign up until there are fo-" Beanbag stopped, taking notice of the new person with them. "Oh... So you DO have a new member! Excellent! You people are eligible to join. Now, I just need your names..."

"Nazuchi."

"Chalk!"

"Zanex."

"Mars."

"OK, gotcha! Nazuchi... Chalk... Zanex... And finally Mars..." Beanbag scribbled their names on the paper. "According to the 'Rules of the Dream Games', you are entitled to a room in the Dreamy Castle, so I'm giving you four guys a room."

"Errr... I think there's something wrong with that." Mars intervened. "I'm not exactly a guy..."

"...Oh! My apologies! Make that three guys and a gal! Now, you better be ready for tomorrow, for that's when the Dream Games begin! There are many different types of competitions in this game, and some of them are fights. When it comes to fighting, we do not encourage death. That's a big no no around here."

"Yeah yeah... I gotcha. We're not going to kill people."

"So what's your team name?"

"Ermmm..." Nazuchi sweat dropped. "I don't know..."

"How about The Chosen Ones?" Chalk suggested, making the group look over at him. "What? That gramps guy keeps telling us that!"

"All right! I shall list you four down as 'The Chosen Ones'..." Beanbag scribbled in. "And...presto! It's done!"

"Well that's a relief," Nazuchi said.

"Anyway... Here are your keys!" Beanbag handed the keys to Nazuchi. "You'll find your room up on the third floor. You have the rest of the day to relax, so be ready for tomorrow! If you don't feel like relaxing, you can always go to the sparring room up on the second floor if you wish."

"All right, thanks for that!" Nazuchi smiled, he and the others turning away. However, they had come across four other figures approaching them. They were dressed in yellow, red, blue, and green. Each of them had a symbol of a certain object on both their helmets and chests.

"Wow, what a bunch of freaks!" Chalk said out loud.

"Hey! Carrex takes offense to that!" the small, yellow one yelled.

"Easy there, mate. Don't let 'em get to ya so easily." the green one suggested, facing the heroes. "So... You're the guys me mate, the Shadow King, was mentioning, yeah?"

"Heh heh! They look like they're askin' for me to scorch 'em!" the red, tall one snickered.

"But you must admit that they do look cute, oui?" the blue one asked.

"Who're you guys supposed to be?" Mars asked.

"Carrex here is Carrex!" Carrex introduced, moving his arms to his left while standing on his tippy toes.

"Heh heh! I'm Trifles!" Trifles announced, spinning and making a pose at the back of the group.

The blue one had formed her hands in the shape of a triangle while raising her left leg sideways. "My name is Seurs!"

Finally, the green one kneeled down and spread his arms out. "The name's Pikay! And together, we are..."

"The Soot Squad!"

"Soot Squad? That's the best name you could come up with?" Zanex scoffed. "Whatever. I'm not dealing with a bunch of flamboyant freaks."

"Flamboyant?!" Pikay gawked. "I believe the correct term is 'stylish'! In fact, we are the most stylish of the Shadow King's minions!"

"Oui! It's very fun!" Seurs agreed, flicking her blonde ponytail back.

"And evil!" Trifles grinned.

Pikay had decided to approach Beanbag with his companions, who began to introduce themselves to him. Meanwhile, the heroes had decided to walk away and went up to the third floor.

* * *

**Third floor-**

"OK... It says here our room is Room 323." Nazuchi said, facing the door in front of them. "All right, let's check it out!"

Opening the door, they were surprised to know that the room was very nice. It had four queen-sized beds, a clean, red carpet, and even a balcony. There was even a table to sit at as well. Immediately, Chalk had jumped on one of the beds.

"I call this one!" Chalk declared.

"Yeah, yeah, you take that one. Not like it matters anyway." Nazuchi shrugged, sitting on one of the beds. "Geez... I never thought we'd be competing to get a Land Tablet this time. I mean, that Soot Squad or whatever they are must be going after it too. Probably so they can take over this land..."

"Most likely," Mars agreed. "If we get to fight those freaks, then I'll be more than happy to blast them. They didn't look so tough!"

"They sure didn't, that's for sure. Maybe they'll be easy for us to fight!"

"Anyway, we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. And, since it's pretty dark out, why don't we rest for now." Mars suggested, pressing a button on her wrist to let her Power Suit materialize away. This had revealed her red, full-body jumpsuit underneath, along with her brown hair that was in a bun. Nazuchi and Chalk had looked at her in surprise, while Zanex didn't seem to care. "What? You've never seen a human before?"

"A human? I don't think so..." Nazuchi trailed.

"Weird name, but who cares?" Chalk shrugged, getting to sleep and snoring loudly.

Seeing nothing else to do, everyone else had decided to go to sleep. Zanex, however, was the only exception. He had decided to step outside and look out at the distance of this place. He drew his katana and looked at the blade.

For some reason, he couldn't get the mentioning of unlocking Yami's true potential out of his head...

_"If that old man was right... Then there's much more to this thing than I thought."_ Zanex thought. _"But the only question is... How can I successfully do it?"_

Annoyed, the brown hedgehog decided to get some rest for tomorrow. Unfortunately, they were completely unaware of the fact that a figure had made its appearance in the room once all four of them had fallen into slumber.

"Scree hee hee..." the figure snickered, floating over to Zanex. "Finally... With these people asleep, it vill be much easier to finish my plan!"

Antasma raised his arms, ready to drain the energy out of the hedgehog. However, something had suddenly caused him to stop. He noticed Zanex's eyes close even tighter as a blade materialized and lunged at Antasma. He was lucky to get out of the way in time of it.

"Vat?! Vat just happened?!" Antasma gawked, quickly transforming into a bat and flying out of the balcony to avoid another blade. "Screeeeek! I thought my plan vould've vorked, but that brown one can sense danger! This may not be as easy as I thought... Especially since I can only come out ven they are sleeping! Screeugh... Even if I go after the others, that brown one vill probably still sense my vereabouts!"

Having no other choice, Antasma had retreated. However, that didn't mean he wasn't going to give up so soon. Perhaps he had another idea to help him...

* * *

**The next day-**

Thankfully, the four had gotten a decent amount of sleep, but the sounds of arguing had caused them to wake up. Zanex, especially, was annoyed by the noise. Regardless of that, they got up, with Mars pressing a button on a wrist pad on what is called her X Suit, and her Power Suit had materialized back on her. Needless to say, Nazuchi was surprised.

"Whoa... How can you do that?" Nazuchi gaped.

"Because my area has awesome technology," Mars answered, opening the door. When the others had stepped out, they noticed to their right, the arguing had been coming from four familiar people.

"Toadburt, you're not going to be telling us what to do in this competition," Bonnie informed. "Goombi suggested that we work better, and for one, I agree."

"But I'm the leader!" Toadburt whined. "Ya gotta listen to me!"

"Why should we?"

"Because… I'm too handsome!"

"More like you're too egotistical…" Koopo muttered.

"Hey, I heard that!"

"Great... We have a room next to them..." Nazuchi sighed.

"Will you people cut it out?" Seurs yelled from a room to the heroes' left. "I prefer my sleep to be peaceful!"

"And those freaks have a room next to us as well!" Chalk added.

"Well... This is nice." Nazuchi sighed. "On one side, we have Toadburt, and we have that Soot Squad on the other... Fate just doesn't seem to be on our side at the moment."

_"Attention competitors!"_ Beanbag's voice echoed through the speakers. _"We will be beginning the Dream Games in a half an hour! In the meantime, come on down to the first floor and see who you'll be going up against in the first round!"_

Immediately, people from other rooms had burst out of their doors and raced down to the first floor. Nazuchi and the others decided to follow down to the big room on the first floor to find a big match up list on the wall.

"For those of you who had just showed up, take a look at your team number on the wall, and you will find out which team you'll be going up against," Beanbag explained. "As for what you'll be doing... You'll find out as soon as you go up against each other!"

The heroes waited until the way was clear for them to approach the big match up, and they saw that their team name was on the very first bracket of round one. They saw the name "The Flare Bros." beside them.

"The Flare Bros.?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Who are 'The Chosen Ones'?" a Fire Bro. with a flaming cap and shell asked, standing by three other similar ones. Chalk was about to reply, but Nazuchi covered his mouth before so. "Well, whoever they are, they must really think they're destined to win this!"

Ignoring them, the group had taken a look at more of the match up. They had noticed the Four Heroes were not too far from their bracket, but the Soot Squad was all the way at the end. Needless to say, they probably weren't going to have to run into those clowns. Hopefully...

"I hope everyone knows when they will be up!" Beanbag announced. "As of now, those who will be coming up first better be ready!"

"So we're going to go up there first?" Mars asked, smirking under her helmet while inspecting her Arm Cannon. "Nice. It'll be a good opportunity to show off my moves!"

"Whatever," Zanex said, not appearing to care. "We'll just get this stupid round over with already."

Eventually the waiting period had finally come to an end after many of the contestants got a look at the match up. The four, knowing that they were about to go up, got onto the "battle ring", which had a symbol of a large, red pillow. The Flare Bros. had gotten up onto the ring as well, appearing dumbfounded by their opponents. The rest of the contestants, meanwhile, had decided to watch, along with many others not competing.

"Wait… This is the team we're going up against?" the Fire Bro. leader gawked. "You gotta be kidding me! These guys don't look like they've got anything to win this!"

"Well… You guys all look the same!" Chalk shouted back, only making it silent with the exception of crickets chirping. "Errr… You guys stink!"

Beanbag had come up to the stage with a wireless microphone in his hand. "Ladies and gentlemen… I hereby welcome you all to the very first round of the Dream Games!"

The audience began to let out a round of applause, while the four heroes looked over at the Flare Bros., who looked like they were ready to crush this competition.

"These contestants here are the very first ones to find out what type of competition they'll be playing to win! Now… If I could get my lucky bag…" Beanbag took out his lucky bag and began to search through it until he got a folded up piece of paper out. "Hmmmm? Well, it looks like these two will be showing off their moves for today! We like to call this type of game the 'Fluffy Show'!"

"So we get to beat them up?" Chalk asked.

"No… You just have to show off what moves you're capable of. Anyway, there are three judges over by the table, and they'll give you guys a score. Whoever has the highest score in the end will win the first round of this game. You need to win at least twice in order to be victorious. As for the judges… They're over there."

The group looked over by a wooden table, where there was a Lakitu, a Hooski, and to the heroes' surprise, Yakken.

"Yakken?" Nazuchi gawked. "What's he doing here?"

Seeing that they noticed him, Yakken put a finger over his mouth to indicate to stay quiet. Nazuchi had given a nod in response.

"So he's the guy you mentioned when explaining that whole story, right?" Mars asked.

"Yeah, that's him," Nazuchi nodded. "Though, I don't get what he's doing here…"

"Hey, if he's on our side, then maybe he'll make it easy on us!" Chalk smiled. "Well… I hope."

"So… You guys ready?" Beanbag asked, noticing the Flare Bros. getting in a ready stance. "Oh, and for the other competitors out there, you won't have the same exact one as these folks, considering I pull out the name of the game at random. …That is, unless I pick a similar one to them."

Obviously a couple of groans could be heard from the audience.

"So, are the Flare Bros. and The Chosen Ones ready to show off their moves?" Beanbag asked.

Both sides had given nods.

"And are the judges ready to…well, judge?"

The judges all nodded.

"Good! Then… Let the Fluffy Show begin!"

Once the gong was struck, the Flare Bros. started to show off by creating fireballs and throwing them up in the air. They exploded, causing fire to rain down from the sky. While it wasn't near the audience, the four were near it, forcing them to dodge the fire.

"Hey, that was neat," the Lakitu judge remarked, holding up a sign that had the number eight on it.

"That was quite the hoo!" the Hooski agreed, holding up a number seven.

"Not bad, if I say so myself," Yakken nodded, holding up a number eight.

"Heh heh! We've got this in the bag!" the Flare Bro. leader grinned. "Try to beat that, Chosen Ones!"

"Yeah!" Chalk declared, turning to the group. "So… What do we do?"

"Well, we gotta do something that looks a lot cooler…" Nazuchi replied. "Though, I don't have a clue what we can do…"

"I've got it!" Chalk declared, whipping his paintbrush out and drawing a red X on the ground. When he stepped back, the paint turned to fire, which only disappeared in seconds. "Ha! How'd you like that?!"

"…Needs a bit of work," the Lakitu said, holding a sign with a four.

"It wasn't as hooing as the other," the Hooski nodded, holding a three.

"It has potential, but you should improve it," Yakken added, holding a five.

"What? Come on!" Chalk frowned. "So… We already lost?"

"Believe it or not, you didn't," Beanbag stepped in. "That was just the first part of this little competition. The Flare Bros. have won this round of the Fluffy Show. You still have a chance to redeem yourself! But be warned… Lose again, and the Flare Bros. will ultimately win!"

"OK… Then we really gotta show what we can do." Nazuchi sighed.

"All right… Begin round two!" Beanbag declared, watching one of the Flare Bros. whip out another fireball. To the shock of many, he managed to eat the fireball. Followed after was him breathing out fire.

"Hmmmm… Not as impressive as the raining fire, but still not too bad." The Lakitu decided, holding up a six.

"Yeah, he's got a point," the Hooski agreed, holding a six.

"I've seen better," Yakken remarked, holding up a four.

"What? Way to go…" the Flare Bro. leader scowled, giving the one performing the move a glare.

"So… Let's see what The Chosen Ones can do!" Beanbag smiled. "Perhaps they can redeem themselves?"

"Fine, but I'm only doing this to get this out of the way," Zanex decided, stepping up with his weapon ready. He got in a good position and swiftly drew Yami, creating many blue beams that appeared tangled up in some sort of web in the middle of the ring. Everyone gazed at it in awe until it shattered with an explosion once Chalk shot a paint ball at it.

"That looked pretty cool," the Lakitu remarked, holding a nine.

"Hoo boy! That was a hoo!" the Hooski smiled, giving an eight.

"Yeah, it was definitely something, especially when it exploded," Yakken said, giving them a nine.

"Well, it looks like The Chosen Ones win the second round," Beanbag declared, while the Flare Bros. frowned. "This means that we have one more round! Whoever wins this one gets to go to the second round of the Dream Games!"

"All right, boys! We gotta take it to high gear!" the Flare Bro. leader declared. "Time to show these folks our inferno!"

The four agreed, and they all formed a tower. They closed their eyes and clenched their fists until there was a bright flash. Everyone had noticed that the Flare Bros. were all set on fire. But they weren't done there. They raised their arms and let out a scream that suddenly made fireballs shoot all over the place. The fire's radius around them had also gotten bigger, making the other team stand back.

When the fire had eventually gotten big enough, it had created a figure of one of the Flare Bros., but with yellow eyes instead. The judges looked at it in awe, and many of them had held up tens, except for Yakken, who gave a nine.

"Ooh… Now that's a tough score to beat." Beanbag remarked. "If The Chosen Ones want to win this, then they gotta get all tens from the judges…"

"No problem," Mars said confidently. "We can do this."

"Really?" Nazuchi gawked. "Well… Maybe I can help pull off something with my boots or gauntlets."

"Show it off. Maybe I can help make it interesting."

"All right," the blonde boy stepped in the center, striking the ground with his fists to create a large gust of wind. He added some electricity in his boots to make the whirlwind electrifying as well.

"How shocking," Beanbag remarked.

Mars aimed her Arm Cannon at the whirlwind and fired at least two missiles. This had created some explosions within the whirlwind. But they weren't done just yet. Chalk got his paintbrush ready and added many different sorts of paint, while Zanex summoned an orb with his katana that sliced through the air. This had made the whirlwind become stronger in the process, and it was even a mix of fire, ice, electricity, poison, etc. The icing to the cake, however, was when Mars fired one last missile that caught in the tornado and created a large explosion in the ring that managed to knock the Flare Bros. out.

The audience stared at awe, surprised by this whole thing. Even the judges were left surprised. In fact, they were so surprised, they were impressed by it, awarding the four with three tens.

"I don't believe it, folks! The Chosen Ones were awarded perfect tens from all three judges!" Beanbag cheered. "The Chosen Ones have won! This mean they will be moving up to Round Two of the Dream Games! Come on, people, let's have it for them!"

The audience let out cheers, while the four were left surprised by this much praise given to them. Meanwhile, the Flare Bros. got back on the ring, looking annoyed by their defeat.

"Those dang Chosen Ones…" the Flare Bro. leader grumbled. "We were so close…"

"For now, we'll have a little intermission so the next two groups can prepare themselves! For The Chosen Ones, they have the rest of today to relax, and then they'll be ready to challenge those in Round Two!"

Once all the cheering had settled down, the two groups had left the ring, while Beanbag decided to escort the four into his own office nearby. It was quite dreamy, having a lavender, fluffy couch to sit on, and purple walls with stars plastered on it. Beanbag's desk was in the shape of a pillow, and his seat was also red and comfy, have a pillow for a seat.

"I must say, I am very impressed with your skills out there," Beanbag remarked. "You're quite a team."

"You're dang right we are!" Chalk smirked, trying to be all cool.

"I'm guessing that you really want the prizes that I hold, considering how you managed to throw in that one ability in the end."

"Definitely," Nazuchi nodded. "They're very important for the world. You see, they're-"

"Hey hey, I didn't ask for you to explain to me what's going on! It's not going to convince me to give them up so soon! …Anyway, I want to give you guys these."

Beanbag took out purple bracelets and handed them to the four.

"What're these supposed to be?" Mars asked, putting hers on.

"Those are Dreamy Wristbands," Beanbag explained. "It's proof that you have won Round One and will proceed to Round Two tomorrow. It also will let you back in the Dreamy Castle if you ever wish to leave."

"Fair enough," Nazuchi nodded. "Well, we better get going then…"

"Yes… And good luck tomorrow!"

With that, the four had left the office, relieved to be finished with that match.

"Man… I can't believe we managed to pull that off…" Nazuchi sighed.

"I'm not too surprised," Zanex shrugged. "Those Flare Bros. were a little too full of themselves anyway."

"Since we won, why don't we check outside?" Mars suggested. "I hadn't gotten the chance to see what else there is out here."

Agreeing, the group decided to make their way to the castle's exit. Along the way, they had come across a yellow, female block being with a large, block head and a smaller, block body. She had black arms with white gloves and also sported brown shoes and short, brown hair. She also had a camera, too, and was taking pictures of the castle. However, seeing the four, she took the opportunity to take pictures of them, much to Zanex's dismay.

"Will you stop that?!" Zanex growled, revealing one of his fangs as he grit his teeth.

"Sorry, I just couldn't resist getting a picture of the first winners of Round One," the Brock said, taking one last picture. "My name's Brittney. I've been a photographer for Dreamy Castle for five years!"

"Nazig, this girl looks weird," Chalk whispered.

"Well, we all look pretty different…" Nazuchi trailed.

"So, where are you four headed off to?" Brittney asked.

"We're checking outside," Mars answered.

"Oh… Well, all right. I guess you don't feel like talking then, right?"

"Correct," Zanex answered, walking ahead to the door.

"OK… I guess… Wait, hold on a moment. Maybe I should warn you about something important…"

Zanex came to a halt and turned to Brittney, despite looking annoyed.

"I don't mean to ruin your time here in Dreamy Castle, but I feel like there's something up with this place…" Brittney trailed. "When the Dreamy Games first opened up, I had noticed many contestants competing. Some, however… I never got to see again. In fact, I don't know if I had ever seen those who had lost the competition ever again."

"What? Really?" Nazuchi gawked.

"Yeah. I don't know if they had left before I got to see them again, or something really bad happened to them. I tried telling contestants from the past about this, but none of them believed me. Not even Beanbag is convinced by my words!"

"It doesn't sound like it's anything big," Chalk shrugged off. "Let's go check out those rides!"

"Wait, hold on, Chalk…" Nazuchi paused, grabbed a hold of him. "Maybe she's right… I mean, we had run into a big problem when we first came here."

"So you do believe me then?" Brittney gaped. "Whew! Good! Maybe you guys might be able to give me a hand, then! I'll let you know if I come across anything crazy later."

They nodded, and soon Brittney was back to work, while the heroes had stepped outside into the carnival.

"I guess we better be prepared if anything bad happens around here…" Nazuchi trailed, his yellow eyes shifting around the area. "If we run into that Antasma guy again, things could get hairy…"

"I wanna know why that Yakken guy was a judge there, too!" Chalk added.

"At this point, I think what's going on in Dreamy Castle in more important. But if we find him, we'll ask him."

Though they were out in Slumber Park, Mars, on the other hand, was not too pleased. There were barely any rides here, and the only ride that was around didn't seem to interest her either. Regardless, she decided to explore the place, with the others following behind her.

"What kind of place is this? There's hardly much aroun-" Mars found herself coming to a halt when she noticed something behind the cloud ride. There was swirling portal in the shape of a cloud, and it had all sorts of colors in it. "What the heck is this?"

"Hey… We didn't see that before." Nazuchi realized, getting a closer look at it. "I wonder what it is?"

"Let's check it out!" Chalk suggested, leaping into the portal.

"Wait, Chalk!" Nazuchi tried grabbing his foot, but he was already too late. Groaning, he leaped into the portal to follow the gray puffball. Following behind was both Zanex and Mars.

* * *

**?-**

When Chalk had landed on the floor, he hadn't gotten a chance to see what was around him when Nazuchi had fallen on him. Thankfully, Zanex and Mars were able to land on their feet and prevent themselves from falling over like the other two. Once both Nazuchi and Chalk got up, though, they were astonished by what they saw before them.

It was the Slumber Park, but it actually looked more like a park. There were even some people on the rides, enjoying themselves. Though, most of them appeared rather pale. On top of that, the sky was pretty distorted, as if the art style had changed drastically.

"OK, this is MUCH better," Mars commented.

Looking behind them, they had noticed Dreamy Castle was still there. However, the gate leading in there appeared to be locked. But regardless of that, the four had decided to check around the park, since there wasn't anything else they could do.

That was, until they had spotted Yakken over by the park's exit with two Shadoos.

"Yakken? He's here too?" Nazuchi gawked.

They noticed Yakken pointing his staff at the ground and making a chest appear.

"This should work nicely," Yakken said with a grin. One of the Shadoos, however, had spotted the four and was now tugging on Yakken's cloak. He had looked up at the heroes in surprise. Regardless of that, he ordered the Shadoos to attack, while he had teleported out of here.

"Hey, where'd he go?" Chalk gawked.

Immediately the two Shadoos lunged at the group, but they barely had time to make a move when two yellow shots had fired from Mars's Arm Cannon and destroyed them with a single hit.

"Well… I guess that takes care of them." Nazuchi shrugged, approaching the chest. "But what was Yakken doing here with this chest? Hmmmm…"

Opening the chest, Nazuchi had found a Mushroom inside, to his surprise.

"Wait… A Mushroom? This isn't dangerous. Was Yakken just helping us or something?"

"Well, it'll help us, so just take it," Mars shrugged. "Finders keepers, y'know?"

Shrugging, Nazuchi put the item away, but he couldn't help but look back at the castle. Why it was locked, he had no clue. It didn't look like it was easy to break through, though, so blowing through probably wouldn't do much.

"So what do we do here?" Chalk asked. "Should we explore outside?"

"We can't," Zanex said, pointing to the exit ahead. There didn't appear to be anything through that gate. "There's nothing ahead. This is just entirely one big area."

"Oh… Well, I guess we should leave this place then." Nazuchi decided, approaching the portal. "I mean, there's nothing too interesting around here, and it doesn't look like those people around here are paying attention to us. Plus, getting into that castle is impossible. But I wonder why…"

"Beats me. Let's just leave." Mars decided, running over to the portal. "I have to admit, this world does seem to be a bit dreamy, don't you think?"

"Like a dream world?" Chalk wondered.

"Yeah, probably," the bounty hunter answered, leaving the dream world. Everyone else quickly jumped into the portal to follow her.

* * *

**Real world-**

The group had jumped out from the portal, but unlike before, Nazuchi had a much better landing, while Chalk landed face-first. When they finally pulled themselves together, the portal behind them had closed.

"Well, looks like we're not going back in there…" Nazuchi trailed. "But I've got to wonder… Who were all those people in those rides? And they didn't seem like they were paying attention to us."

"Maybe because we were insignificant to them," Zanex said.

"Really? I don't think so…"

"It doesn't matter. We wanted to check around this land, so that's what we're going to do."

"I guess so. Maybe we'll find something that can help us." Nazuchi decided, making his way out of the park with the others. Now they were back in the open, and that meant that they were not in safe ground, especially when a couple of Viruses popped out of the ground and charged at them.

But, thankfully, they hadn't gotten a single chance to make their move when Mars blasted them all. She grinned under her helmet while steam had emitted from her weapon before lowering it.

"All right… Now we need to figure our where to-"

"I'm picking up some readings on some of those dark monsters over there," Mars noted, pointing over by two mountains in the distance. "Yup… These are definitely those evil monsters."

"Wait, how do you know?" Nazuchi asked.

"I've installed something in my visor that lets me find the location of those dark monsters. It definitely makes getting the job done A LOT easier!"

"Oh… That's neat! Good thing you're with us, then!" the blonde boy smiled. "We should probably go there anyway. I mean, with monsters there, something serious must be going on."

Everyone had their weapons ready as they continued on in the direction Mars was going. A Beanie had tried to stop them, but Mars easily shot it without having to stop moving. In fact, she pretty much decimated any enemy in their way without having to stop.

"Hey! I wanna hit something!" Chalk pouted.

"Sorry, but I'm up in front," Mars replied. "Plus, I'm a professional. I know how to handle these things better."

"Well I'm… Uhhhh…" the puffball tapped his chin (if he even had one), thinking for a moment. "Well I've got a magic paintbrush! That's so much cooler than a…gun on your…arm… Oh, come on! That sounds a lot cooler!"

After three minutes had passed, they had finally gotten closer to the pathway in between the two mountains. However, it didn't mean that the place could be accessed easily, oh no. A Shadoo Brute and two Shadoo Blades were guarding the entryway, but when they spotted the four, they quickly got in their fighting stances.

_**"****Hey, what're these guys doing here?!"**_ the first Shadoo Blade asked.

_**"****And they've got a new one on their side, too!"**_ the second noticed, looking at Mars. _**"Well… Perhaps this should be interesting."**_

_**"****Yeah,"**_ the Shadoo Brute nodded, extending its arms. _**"However, we can't let these fools breach through here!"**_

Mars quickly dodged the Shadoo Brute's arm and prepared to fire. One of the Shadoo Blades acted swiftly and curled up in a ball and charged into Mars, knocking her back. She quickly got up, not appearing too hurt by the attack, and she fired at the enemy that hit her. It was a lot faster than her shot, leading Mars's attack to miss.

"Man, these guys are quick!" Mars grumbled.

The other had come her way, but Nazuchi had his sword ready and swung it, letting sparks emit from both blades. The blonde boy seemed to push the Shadoo Blade back, but it was Chalk's purple paint that stopped it in its tracks and let it fall into slumber. Then he finished it with green paint.

"Good work, Chalk!" Nazuchi smiled, taking his bow out when the remaining Shadoo Blade had gotten out of its ball form. He fired the light arrow, causing some immense damage to the shadow being. Mars quickly blasted it, finishing it off.

"Ah, now THAT was satisfying!" Mars grinned.

Now all that was left was the Shadoo Brute, and it had managed to grab a hold of Mars and fling her at Nazuchi and Chalk, knocking them back. Zanex, on the other hand, acted swiftly and smacked the Shadoo Brute with his scabbard, and then he dealt some serious damage when he actually drew his blade.

However, he didn't get a chance to use his Spin Dash, as the Shadoo Brute managed to grab a hold of him. He remained calm and summoned one of his Materialized Swords to attack, but that didn't make the Shadoo Brute release him.

Eventually Mars had gotten up and fired a missile at the Shadoo Brute. This not only managed to release Zanex, but it also destroyed the enemy as well.

Of course, Zanex wasn't too pleased with Mars's actions.

"You fool! I had that monster where I wanted it!" Zanex yelled, giving Mars a glare.

"Hey, I was trying to save you, settle down!" Mars replied, moving her hand in a motion to try to calm him down. Obviously, that wasn't working.

"Well, you were wrong there. And I don't require you saving me. Same goes for you two as well." the hedgehog mentioned, his eyes darting to Nazuchi and Chalk. "You focus on helping yourselves or each other."

"Look, Zanex, we're all in this together," Nazuchi said, approaching the hedgehog. "If there's something troubling you, then maybe you should tell us. We're on the same team, after all."

Zanex turned away from Nazuchi and started to approach the pathway ahead, leaving the other three to watch.

"What's up with him?" Mars asked.

"He got up on the wrong side of the bed," Chalk answered. "Then again, he's always been a bit of a crabby pillow!"

"Yeah, Chalk's right," Nazuchi nodded, until he stopped at what Chalk said. "Wait… What did you say?"

"He got up in the wrong side of the bed?"

"No, the other one."

"He's always been a crabby pillow?"

"What the heck is a crabby pillow?"

"Uhhhh… I don't know…" Chalk shrugged. "Can we go?"

Nazuchi decided to shrug and head toward the path Zanex took, with Chalk following behind. Mars had followed last, but she had started to ponder over the brown hedgehog. For some reason, he looked a bit familiar to him.

_"Perhaps that was the one I had first noticed when I landed in this world?"_ Mars thought, noticing her surroundings change upon going in between the two mountains.

What she and the others found past it, however, was quite a surprise.

* * *

**I actually thought of putting an entire dream overworld here, but I thought it would probably make it pointless to have a real overworld here instead.**

**To be honest, I'm actually happy to have Mars here, because I haven't really written anything related to Metroid. So, this should be something pretty different for me. With this whole area, though, I thought about doing one chapter for each day, but I don't want to cram in too much stuff for this chapter. However, there will be at least one match each chapter, so look forward to that!  
**


End file.
